American Public Health Association Opposes Administration Legal Action on Affordable Care Act

SAN DIEGO, California, June 29 -- The American Public Health Association issued the following news release:

The American Public Health Association strongly opposes a Trump Administration legal filing with the U.S. Supreme Court aimed to strike down the Affordable Care Act, an action that threatens the health and well-being of millions of Americans.

"The Trump Administration has zeroed in on the ACA since the beginning, but has never offered anything in place that can help protect and improve the health of people," said APHA Executive Director Georges Benjamin, MD. "Especially at this crucial time during the COVID-19 pandemic, this is simply outrageous."

The administration's legal brief was filed in the case in which justices are expected to hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act in October. The court will decide whether the law's "individual mandate" is constitutional after Congress removed a tax penalty for those who do not maintain health insurance. The court will also be faced with deciding whether the entire law should be repealed if they find the individual mandate to be unconstitutional.

APHA, the American Academy of Nursing and leading public health deans and scholars have filed an amicus brief saying the Affordable Care Act should be preserved and has enabled more than 90% of Americans to have some form of health insurance. Coverage under the ACA is particularly significant now as part of our national response to COVID-19.

"Repeal of the Affordable Care Act would be deeply damaging to the American health care system and public health," Benjamin has said. "It would reverse years of lives saved and diseases avoided due to its coverage and insurance protections and its important investments in public health. Its loss would add to the devastation we are already seeing from the COVID-19 pandemic and would remove health insurance protections and important funding for public health laboratories and immunization programs right when we need them the most."