Gage Skidmore / Flickr trump leaning...
Gage Skidmore / Flickr

Does Donald Trump even know what the latest Republican healthcare bill would do to people with pre-existing conditions, or is he lying about it? It’s like a Schrodinger’s lie—Trump is profoundly ignorant and it’s unlikely he knows what’s in the Graham-Cassidy bill, but he would certainly lie about it without thinking twice (or once, for that matter) if he did know. Either way, this tweet is false:



Here’s reality:

 The bill wouldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act’s rules about pre-existing conditions. But they might end up only existing on paper, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt said.

Graham-Cassidy doesn’t let states waive the part of the Affordable Care Act that says insurers have to cover sick people. But it does allow states to opt out of several other ACA rules that can cause people with pre-existing conditions to pay more for their health care. Those provisions include:

  • The ban on charging sick people higher premiums than healthy people.

It’s the trick Republicans have been trying to play all along—claim that you’re protecting people with pre-existing conditions because insurance companies can’t say directly “we will not insure you,” but let the insurance companies charge people with pre-existing conditions so much that no one could afford coverage. We’re not denying you insurance, we’re just charging you $100,000 a year! Your pre-existing condition is totes covered! What a “great Bill.”




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