McSally’s Choice: Stand With Arizonans — Or Her Insurance Industry Backers

PHOENIX, Arizona, Oct. 7 -- The Arizona Democratic Party issued the following news release:

Arizonans deserve to know how unelected U.S. Sen. Martha McSally plans to vote on the U.S. Senate's planned vote on insurance companies' ability to take advantage of older Americans and deny coverage to people with a pre-existing condition.

The upcoming Senate vote will decide whether to roll back a Trump Administration rule that has expanded insurance companies' ability to offer short-term -- also called "junk" -- health insurance plans.

The AARP has criticized Republican efforts to expand short-term plans, because the plans allow insurance companies to:

"impose an age tax, charging older Americans much higher premiums";

decline to "cover such essential health benefits as emergency room visits," maternity care, and prescription drugs; and

"deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions."

While McSally's record of voting to increase health care costs and gut pre-existing condition coverage protections is well-documented, McSally in 2018 refused to say how she would've voted on a related Senate effort to curtail short-term plans, claiming "she wasn't familiar with the legislation."

Still, McSally has been broadly consistent in her push for gutting coverage protections and letting insurance companies write their own rules -- all while receiving at least $176,000 from health care industry corporate PACs.

As Washington Republicans continue their attacks on the health care system, Arizonans deserve to know whether Martha McSally plans to once again side with her corporate donors and vote to sell out Arizonans' health care protections.