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Baltimore Suing Trump Administration Over Health Care

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BALTIMORE, MD — The city of Baltimore is suing President Donald Trump and his administration over the Affordable Care Act. With a total of four cities listed as plaintiffs, the lawsuit was filed Thursday in Maryland district court.

It accuses the president of failing to uphold the law around health care.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, was signed into law in March 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court two years later. The law aimed to give more Americans access to affordable, quality health insurance while lowering the ballooning cost of health care.

The lawsuit was filed the day after Trump rolled out a plan for cheaper short-term health insurance offerings that would, among other things, no longer cover preexisting conditions, according to the New York Times.

Trump is accused of violating Article 2 of the Constitution, also known as the “Take Care” clause. Article 2 of the Constitution, Section 3, states that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…”

The cities suing the president and his administration said they were going to be negatively impacted by fallout from the lack of health insurance coverage.

“We are deeply concerned about the impact of the rising uninsured population on health and costs to our city,” Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen said in a statement Thursday.

The Baltimore City Health Department “already operates on a shoestring budget, and further increases in the uninsured rate will place an even greater burden on programs already short on resources,” Wen said.

Baltimore City first responders treated 17,000 people who did not have health insurance in 2017, according to WBAL, which reported Mayor Catherine Pugh said it was a “cost the city cannot afford to bear” and she was joining several other mayors in filing suit against the President.

Four cities have signed on to the lawsuit:

Instead of merely failing to protect the laws, those suing the Trump administration allege he actively tried to undermine the health care law.

The attorney for the city of Columbus told NBC that there was a “clear case for premeditated destruction of the Affordable Care Act.”

According to NBC, the lawsuit accusing Trump of sabotaging Obamacare will rely on statements he has made, including on Twitter, about dismantling the plan.

In addition to the four cities that have filed suit, one couple from Charlottesville, Virginia, was listed among the plaintiffs.

Steve Vondra and Bonnie Morgan said their health care costs rose from a plan with a premium of $1,270 a month in 2017 to a premium of $3,327.65 a month in 2018. Insurance companies in their area have cited uncertainty at the federal level as a factor in the price fluctuation, according to the lawsuit, in which the couple seeks relief.

In a press release from the White House on Wednesday, the administration blamed Obamacare for driving up costs, stating: “Americans are increasingly being priced out of Obamacare plans. In just the first five years of Obamacare’s full implementation, insurance premiums more than doubled.”

Here is the lawsuit, filed on Thursday by Democracy Forward, a nonprofit with a team of lawyers that says it seeks to challenge what it sees as unlawful actions by the executive branch.

“President Trump said himself that he wanted the Affordable Care Act to explode, and his administration has been busy laying the dynamite and lighting the fuse,” Democracy Forward Executive Director Anne Harkavy said in a press release issued Thursday. “Not only do the President’s actions hurt American families, they violate the Constitution he swore to uphold.”

— Patch national reporter Dan Hampton contributed.

Image via Shutterstock.

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