Sisolak slams Trump effort to dump protections for pre-existing conditions

Efforts by President Trump and Congressional Republicans to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s coverage of pre-existing conditions could put as many as 1.2 million Nevadans at risk, according to government estimates.  Democratic candidate for governor, Steve Sisolak, says the reversal would threaten Nevada’s most vulnerable, including 160,000 children and 270,000 senior citizens.

Sisolak defended the ACA’s most popular provision Thursday at a news conference.

“Some people don’t believe health care is a right. I do.  Some people don’t care people are losing it.  I do,” Sisolak said, in an apparent reference to his opponent, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican who opposes the ACA.

“As a society we have a moral obligation to make sure people have access to quality health care.  My opponent has called the ACA the most flawed piece of major legislation America has endured.  I disagree. It’s brought people under the umbrella.  It’s help provide a need that was sorely lacking prior to that,” Sisolak said.

Sisolak also said he would support a state law to prohibit health care providers from paying insurance premiums for patients and reaping the benefits, a practice recently reported by the Current.

“I definitely would look at that,” Sisolak said.  “Anyone that is using the law to pad their own pockets, own bank account, at the expense of the program, at the expense of services being delivered and ultimately at the expense of the people that are receiving the care, need to be punished to the full extent of the law.  I would do everything to identify them as quickly as possible, punish them as severely as possible and put an end to it where they don’t see a profit motive.”

Laxalt’s campaign did not respond to the Current’s question on practitioners purchasing insurance for patients.