To: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
Tell Cuccinelli and McDonnell: Stop Playing Politics With Virginia's Health Care
I’m writing to ask you to stop blocking the Affordable Care Act, which already benefits more than one million Virginians.
You were elected to fight for, not against, the interests of Virginia’s consumers. Instead of fighting for the health insurance companies, you should be holding health insurance companies accountable.
The Affordable Care Act provides benefits like consumer protections against insurance companies, more coverage for kids and young adults, free cancer screenings to seniors who have Medicare and tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage for their employees.
I refuse to put the power back into the hands of the insurance companies who deny our care for any reason, discriminate against the sickest people with pre-existing conditions, and raising our rates whenever they want. Stop blocking the health care law, so we can move forward.
Why is this important?
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act this week. A decision to overturn the law or any of its provisions could result in the loss of benefits to seniors, women, children and families. Recently, Attorney General Cuccinelli stated that unless there are criminal penalties, he would be comfortable breaking the law by not implementing the health care law —regardless of what the Supreme Court decides. After the embarrassment over his global warming lawsuit against UVA professors, we would have thought that the Attorney General would lick his wounds and lay low for a while. But he is continuing his crusade against the health care law.
Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010, Attorney General Cuccinelli has consistently opposed the new law with several lower court challenges. Instead of fighting foreclosure fraud and holding big banks accountable, Attorney General Cuccinelli has wasted time and taxpayer dollars fighting a law which already provides free preventive care, protection against discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, help with prescription drug costs, and a ban on lifetime coverage limits to hundreds of thousands of Virginians.
And make no mistake about it; he has the full support of Governor Bob McDonnell. In fact, the Governor has found his own way to block the health care law by calling on the General Assembly to halt implementation of the Health Benefits Exchange—a critical part of the Affordable Care Act.
Attorney General Cuccinelli calls his blocking of the health care law a “power struggle” between himself and the federal government.
We call it: playing politics with the health care of millions of Virginians.
And we want it to stop.