Arizona Democratic Party: Health Care Set to Be ‘Defining Issue’ Of 2020 Senate Race

PHOENIX, Arizona, May 10 -- The Arizona Democratic Party issued the following news release:

In case you missed it, the Arizona Republic's "The Gaggle" podcast this week spotlighted health care policy and U.S. Sen. Martha McSally's Republican allies' ongoing legal effort to strike down the health care law and dismantle its protections for Arizonans with pre-existing conditions.

According to the Republic's Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, Ron Hansen, and Stephanie Innes, health care is "probably going to be the defining issue in the 2020 election," particularly with respect to Washington and Arizona Republicans' legal effort to strike down the Affordable Care Act, which would raise health care costs and gut the law's consumer protections, including its protections for Arizonans with pre-existing conditions.

You can listen to the full podcast here, and here are some key takeaways -- all of which underscore a challenge that Sen. McSally is already facing, ahead of the 2020 election. As in 2018, Arizonans are already forcing McSally to answer for her long record of supporting efforts that would gut protections for Arizonan's with pre-existing conditions and raise health care costs:

Health care costs and pre-existing condition coverage protections, are set to be the "defining issue" of the 2020 election

* "The number one issue that effects your life, and is probably going to be the defining issue in the 2020 election, is health care" -Wingett Sanchez

* "It's really about half the working-age people in metropolitan Phoenix have a pre-existing condition." -Innes

* "The ACA did a lot of things [...] Some of the bigger things and key issues are: it allowed young people to stay on their parents' insurance until they are 26; it forbade plans from charging you for preventive visits -- so, when you go for an annual checkup, you can't be charged for that; it took away the lifetime and annual caps on spending; [...] the other key thing it did was allowed states to expand their Medicaid programs." -Innes

Republicans back a lawsuit to legally strike down the Affordable Care Act and gut its consumer protections, ensuring that health care remains a focal point in 2020

* "[T]he legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act, which -- best case scenario for some Republicans -- means the law gets essentially repealed through a court challenge." -Wingett Sanchez

* "[T]hey've already had a federal judge rule in favor of overturning the ACA. Although there was an injunction, so that's why the ACA is still in effect [...] And depending on how the Supreme Court rules, there's a real possibility that the ACA could be overturned [...] it could entirely go away as a result of a court ruling." -Innes

* "A ruling in favor of striking down the ACA is more than just a theoretical possibility." -Hansen

* "There is a very big likelihood that this election will hinge on [health care]." -Wingett Sanchez

* * *

- "There is a very big likelihood that this election will hinge on [health care]"

- "If provisions or protections of the Affordable Care Act go away, a lot of people would lose their health coverage and be more vulnerable to the way things were before the Affordable Care Act, which was that people would go bankrupt from their medical costs"