N.C. Senate Nominee: Tillis Pushes Sham Health Care Bill While He Actively Fights to Take Away Critical Pre-Existing Condition Protections

RALEIGH, North Carolina, Oct. 2 -- Former North Carolina State Sen. James Calvin "Cal" Cunningham, Democratic nominee for the Senate, and vice president and general counsel to WasteZero Inc., issued the following campaign news on Oct. 1:

Today, the Senate refused to pass an effort by Senator Thom Tillis to ram through a sham health care bill, as he looks for political cover for his multiple attempts to repeal existing pre-existing condition protections, including multiple votes to fully or partially repeal the Affordable Care Act and his support of a GOP-led lawsuit that would repeal the bill in full, including pre-existing condition protections.

It's clear that Tillis, who at last week's Senate debate on WNCN couldn't offer a single plan to provide health care to North Carolinians, is hoping the sham bill will be enough to rewrite his record of denying North Carolinians care. But Tillis' bill allows health insurers to exclude a number of critical health care benefits, reverses current protections that prevent insurance companies from placing limits on the annual and lifetime benefits they will pay, and could lead to higher premiums and health care costs for women and older Americans.

"During last week's debate, Senator Tillis failed to list a single plan he had to increase North Carolinians' access to healthcare. That's because he's too busy pulling political stunts in an effort to rewrite his record of denying North Carolinians care -- from voting to repeal protections for pre-existing conditions and blocking Medicaid as Speaker," said Kate Frauenfelder, a spokeswoman for Cal Cunningham's campaign. "If Tillis really wanted to help North Carolinians, he would stop voting to repeal the ACA, support Medicaid expansion, and drop his support for the lawsuit that would repeal pre-existing condition protections."

In addition to his repeated votes to strip protections from the 1.7 million North Carolinians living with pre-existing conditions, Tillis blocked Medicaid expansion as North Carolina Speaker of the House, which has left 634,000 North Carolinians without insurance in the middle of a pandemic.

Cal Cunningham has been critical of Tillis' efforts to reverse important health care protections for North Carolinians and is fighting to strengthen and extend coverage under the Affordable Care Act, expand Medicaid in North Carolina, create a public health insurance option, support rural hospitals, address doctor shortages, support life-saving research to prevent and treat diseases like cancer and HIV/AIDS, and ensure no one loses their employer-sponsored coverage who wants to keep it.

Cal held a press call last week to hold Senator Thom Tillis accountable for his health care failures. Cal was joined by Bev Veals, a three-time cancer survivor who called Senator Tillis' office looking for help obtaining health care after her husband was furloughed and was dismissed by a Tillis staffer and Susie Evans, a mother of two children who have pre-existing conditions to discuss how pre-existing conditions protections kept her family from going bankrupt.