Becerra's press conference took place one day before the scheduled oral arguments in California v. Texas.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra held a press conference Monday afternoon to discuss the California v. Texas case one day before oral arguments are scheduled to take place at the Supreme Court.
Becerra was joined by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, Dr. Jamila Perrit, CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, and Julie Walters, co-founder of the PCDH19 Alliance.
Becerra and other advocates for the ACA said that if the high court invalidates the landmark healthcare law passed in March 2010, millions of Americans, including those with pre-existing conditions, could lose their healthcare coverage.
"COVID-19 has made one thing undeniable: we must safeguard the ACA, lives depend on it," he said. "At stake tomorrow are not just details or differences of opinion or numbers on a piece of paper, at stake are people, their health, and their livelihood."
Related: For California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, Resistance Is Personal
In response to a question submitted by HealthLeaders, Becerra said that the country has "turned a corner" in how it views and understands healthcare policy, adding that he believes Americans value healthcare coverage given that the fate of the ACA is currently at stake.
Ford added that there are additional concerns facing rural provider organizations should the ACA be struck down by the Supreme Court.
"This past summer, my office filed a brief with the Supreme Court where we argued that patients, doctors, hospitals, employers, workers, pharmaceutical companies, and more would be negatively impacted if the ACA is repealed," he said. "As a whole, repealing the ACA would have a huge impact on the economy of Nevada's medical providers in the form of uncompensated claims."
Related: What to Know as ACA Heads to Supreme Court — Again
Case timeline:
The case's journey to the Supreme Court began in December 2018 when U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth ruled that the entire ACA was invalid because the individual mandate is invalid, citing the elimination of its financial penalty as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA).
The case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in a split decision in December 2019 that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, though the judges stopped short of invalidating the entire law.
In early March 2020, the high court agreed to hear the case, though a decision is likely to be delivered by mid-2021.
Related: California's Top Lawyer Cements His Role As Health Care Defender-In-Chief
In a late June filing with the Supreme Court, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the ACA must be struck down in its entirety.
Previously, the DOJ argued that most of the landmark law should remain intact even if the individual mandate was zeroed out as part of the tax reform bill.
The Republican attorneys general argue that the mandate cannot be severed from the remainder of the ACA and that therefore, the entire law must fall.
New court composition
The case will be among the first heard by recently confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who previously served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit before being nominated by President Donald Trump to replace longtime Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her passing in September.
During her confirmation hearings, Barrett told Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, that there is "not precedent on issue that’s coming up before the court."
"It turns on a document called severability, which was not an issue in either of the two big ACA cases," Barrett said.
Related: Senate Confirms Barrett to Supreme Court, Focus Shifts to Fate of ACA
Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Julie Walters as the founder of Raremark. The Julie Walters who spoke at Monday's press conference is the co-founder of the PCDH19 Alliance, another rare-disease organization. This story has been updated to reflect that.
Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
Photo credit: Senate Democrats / June 25, 2015 / CC 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdmc/19147913202/
KEY TAKEAWAYS
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is leading a coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia in defense of the ACA, said it is critical to "safeguard" the landmark healthcare law.
In response to a question submitted by HealthLeaders, Becerra said that the country has "turned a corner" in how it views and understands healthcare policy.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said repealing the ACA would have a "huge impact on the economy of Nevada's medical providers in the form of uncompensated claims."
California v. Texas will be among the first heard by recently confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett.