House Republicans Are Our Hypocrites of the Week for Leaving Preexisting Conditions Coverage Out of Their Bogus Healthcare Plan

House Republicans

Over the past several months, the one thing that Republicans consistently said they agreed upon when it came to Democratic healthcare reform was the idea that insurance companies should not be able to deny coverage based on preexisting conditions.

Think Progress illustrates here that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is practically addicted to repeating the phrase whenever someone challenges him with a healthcare question:

While leading GOP opposition to health care reform over the past few months, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) has simultaneously insisted that Republicans believe in helping Americans with preexisting conditions get health care. Currently, "in 44 states, it's legal for health insurers to deny coverage to people who have previously been sick, or charge them more for treatment."

"And so there are a number of things that Republicans believe are essential," Boehner told NPR in September. "We believe that making sure that people who have preexisting conditions have access to affordable health insurance." On Fox News last week, Boehner said that Republicans wanted to focus on helping "those with preexisting conditions."

...In a blog post in June, Boehner wrote, "Quality health coverage must exist for every American, regardless of preexisting health conditions."

Boehner's not the only one who seems to have Preexisting Conditions Tourette Syndrome. In delivering the Republican rebuttal to President Obama's address on healthcare reform earlier this year, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) outlined four basic tenets of reform "where we can agree." The very first one is that "all individuals should have access to coverage, regardless of preexisting conditions."

In a BlogHer conference call connecting women with legislators, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) used her son with Down Syndrome as an example of her solidarity with those who deal with preexisting conditions. She said that "the fact that someone with a preexisting condition is just flat out not able to get health insurance" is "unacceptable."

Clearly, these guys are following the lead of the big boys of the GOP. As the Washington Monthly noted, "Even deeply conservative figures like Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) insisted as recently as August that 'everyone agrees' that legislation should 'eliminate preexisting conditions' as an excuse for denying coverage."

Even governors are getting in the act. In making his Conservative Case for Reform in the Washington Post, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said insurance companies should be required to cover preexisting conditions:

Insurance should not be least accessible when it is needed most. Companies should be incentivized to focus on delivering high-quality effective care, not to avoid covering the sick.

So, these conservative philosophers have certainly been talking the talk. But how about walking the walk?

Well, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) was at least talking the walk when he told talk show host Tavis Smiley that the GOP was working hard on the issue back in September:

Republicans have been bringing forward ideas on issues like how do we deal with the chronically uninsured working in this country, how do we deal with preexisting conditions?

So how did they decide to deal with it when they finally revealed their long-awaited plan? Well, turns out they didn't. Regardless of Minority Whip Eric Cantor's insistence that "no one should have to go without insurance if they find themselves with a preexisting condition, and we address that fact in our bill," the GOP's solution doesn't come close to solving this huge problem.

See, Republicans are hoping you won't notice that their plan for dealing with preexisting conditions relies on a false premise (or at the very best, a false promise). They say anyone who can't find coverage though a private insurer because of their preexisting condition should be able to turn to a state-run, federally-funded "high risk pool" for coverage. The problem with that is that state high risk pools already exist and they're already too expensive, and often have relatively low lifetime limits, making them far from suitable as an alternative.

Then again, it's clear from the presser accompanying the release of the GOP plan that the whole point of the bill has nothing to do with helping people in need. In outlining the House Republicans' strategy for opposing the Democrats' Affordable Health Care for America Act, Boehner said their "goal is to make this as difficult as possible to vote for."

But House Republicans better hope that the Democratic plan does pass, because as far as the GOP is concerned, hypocrisy is a preexisting condition.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.

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This is the first GOP Hypocrite Award for the House Republicans as a whole, though certain members have won individually in the past. You can see a list of all previous nominees here.

Image courtesy of The National Women's Law Center.

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