Column: The Supreme Court could kill protection for preexisting conditions. You should be terrified

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, seen embracing President Obama after his State of the Union address in 2014, was a rock-solid supporter of the Affordable Care Act. President Trump is putting out the word that he has a plan to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions from losing their health coverage, especially if the Supreme Court invalidates the Affordable Care Act. — Kaiser Family Foundation The GOP’s past proposals invariably would have turned the clock on preexisting condition protections back to the Stone Age — that is, the period before the ACA’s enactment in 2010. A proposal introduced in 2018 by Sen. Thom Tillis and nine other red-state senators was billed as the “ Ensuring Coverage for Patients with Pre-Existing Conditions Act.” As I noted at the time, this measure had a loophole that even the dimmest insurance company could drive a hearse through: While it prohibited insurers from rejecting applicants with preexisting conditions, it didn’t require that the insurer provide for treatment of the condition. Vice President Mike Pence hinted in a CBS News interview Tuesday that Trump plans to institute this all-important consumer protection via an executive order within the next few weeks, so that “those that are facing preexisting conditions … will not be denied coverage.” These words were typically weaselly — they would accommodate Tillis’ act as well as all those other GOP proposals.