By MORGAN LEASON
Republished with permission from New Jersey Monitor
New Jersey and 19 other states sued the Trump administration Thursday over a federal rule that could cause as many as 2 million Americans to lose their health insurance.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, challenges a new regulation from the federal government that the plaintiffs say adds unnecessary and improper hurdles to people trying to enroll for health care benefits under the Affordable Care Act.
“This isn’t a serious attempt to protect consumers, it’s yet another political move to punish vulnerable communities by removing access to vital care and gutting the Affordable Care Act,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters Thursday. “This is rule-making by ideology, not by law or by facts.”
The plaintiffs want a judge to block the new regulation before it takes effect on Aug. 25. It would narrow the open enrollment period for health plans purchased through state marketplaces, add verification requirements for applicants and strike drug therapies like hormone or puberty blockers used in gender transition-related care from the federal roster of essential health benefits.
The rule estimates that between 750,000 and 2 million people enrolled in qualified health plans could lose their coverage as a result of the changes. The plaintiffs note that the rule comes just months before open enrollment is set to begin.
The Trump Administration says the rule would address waste, fraud and abuse. Platkin countered that it would punish residents by making health care more expensive and harder to obtain, and punish states by increasing the amount of money they spend insuring residents.
“They’re trying to make health care more expensive and less accessible for every American who relies on it for the most fundamental need: to keep themselves and their families safe and healthy,” Platkin told reporters.
More than half a million New Jerseyans signed up for insurance through the state’s health care marketplace this year, Platkin said.
New Jersey earlier this week joined two separate lawsuits targeting the Trump administration, including one that challenges the administration’s termination of a program intended to pay for pre-disaster mitigation costs.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday claimed 2.8 million Americans are enrolled in multiple taxpayer-subsidized health care plans under Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. This “unnecessary, duplicate enrollment” costs taxpayers $14 billion annually, it said.
