(Bloomberg) -- Democrats are seizing on JD Vance’s pitch to do away with a bedrock part of the Affordable Care Act, saying it would cause costs for chronically ill people to spike.
At a rally on Wednesday, Vance said a second Trump administration would work to separate people into different risk pools, allowing them “to choose a health care plan that works for them.”
“If you only go to the doctor once a year, you’re going to need a different health care plan than somebody who goes to the doctor 14 times a year because they’ve got chronic pain or they’ve got some other chronic condition,” he said, arguing that the change would be better for both groups.
Such a policy would effectively end the ACA’s guarantee that people pay the same prices and get the same benefits regardless of their health status, a popular part of the program.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is trying to protect his endangered majority, slammed the idea.
Past Backlash
He said high-risk pools would mean “going back to the days when having a pre-existing condition meant you pay far more for your health insurance. That’s right: under the Trump-Vance plan, anyone with a chronic condition – or an estimated 129 million Americans – could face outrageously expensive health care costs.”
Backlash against an effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017 helped Democrats take back the House in 2018. The law is even more popular now, and covers more people. Many Republicans have sought to avoid the issue in recent years, but Vance’s comments have reinvigorated the debate less than two months before election day.
Independent Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia called the idea of weakening the ACA’s protections “a gift” to Democrats, noting he successfully used the issue against his opponent in 2018.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who is up for reelection, said he’s willing to discuss ways to improve the health insurance market and lower costs, but rejected any change that would restore “a two-tiered system.”
He noted that high-risk pools had previously led to higher costs and fewer choices.
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