Cramer “Plays Defense” on Health Care

(BISMARCK, ND) – Kevin Cramer is running from his health care record. The Hill reports that Republicans are “play[ing] defense” with voters and trying to hide their record of jeopardizing coverage for folks with pre-existing conditions. Cramer’s latest attempt is signing onto not one, but two, toothless resolutions that would take no concrete action to protect folks with pre-existing conditions – protections that would be gutted should the partisan lawsuit, which Cramer supports, succeed.

See key points from The Hill’s analysis below:

  • Republicans in tough reelection races are scrambling to show that they support protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
  • [T]he argument they are making has been complicated by their party’s repeated efforts to repeal ObamaCare, as well as a lawsuit supported by the Trump administration that seeks to overturn protections under the law for people with pre-existing health conditions.
  • A Morning Consult/Politico poll this month found that a large majority of voters, 71 percent, including 66 percent of Republicans, said insurers should be barred from charging people with pre-existing conditions more, a key provision of ObamaCare.
  • Vulnerable Republican lawmakers face headwinds, however, given the Trump administration’s support for the anti-ObamaCare lawsuit brought by 20 GOP-led states.
  • An ad from Sen. Heidi Heitkamp(D-N.D.), facing one of the toughest Senate races in the country, against GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, features a woman with heart disease saying into the camera: “Mr. Cramer, I don’t know why you voted to let insurance companies go back to denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, but I know Heidi would never do that.”
  • [T]he House’s repeal and replace bill last year, which Cramer, Young, and all but 20 House Republicans voted for, allowed states to get waivers that would enable insurers to spike premiums for people with pre-existing conditions.
  • Larry Levitt, a health policy expert at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said that the House repeal and replace bill last year “opened the door to weakening protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”

Read more about Cramer’s health care record here.

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