A Shameless GOP Health-Care Lie That Could Destroy Lives

The Affordable Care Act is a notoriously complicated and controversial piece of legislation, but one of the things almost everybody says they like about it is that it stopped insurance companies from denying coverage to individuals or charging extra because of pre-existing conditions. In other words, Barack Obama's signature law prevented sick people from being locked out of the US healthcare system solely because they are or have been sick. Both on the campaign trail and during last year's repeal debate, Donald Trump promised to uphold this principle. Other Republican leaders made similar vows, even as the actual legislation they proposed effectively weakened pre-existing condition protections in the name of driving down the cost of insurance plans. Though the repeal effort flamed out in the Senate, the Trump administration has continued to weaken the ACA in various ways.