华盛顿——对总统不屑一顾的一击唐纳德·特朗普周三，众议院议长南希·佩洛西公布了一项扩大“奥巴马医改”的计划，而此时特朗普政府正准备在最高法院提起诉讼，要求推翻该计划。
佩洛西宣布即将对她的措施进行全票表决，引发了一场辩论，将民主党的首要政策问题、特朗普不懈地努力消除奥巴马的遗产以及不受约束的问题并列在一起冠状病毒流行病。
周四，特朗普政府预计将向最高法院提交文件，辩称《平价医疗法案》违宪。佩洛西希望她的议案周一在众议院通过。
试图推翻一个健康保险佩洛西说，向大约2000万人提供覆盖面的扩张“在任何时候都是错误的”。
“现在，这已经超越了愚蠢，”她补充道。"超越愚蠢"
COVID-19病例在德克萨斯州、佛罗里达州和加利福尼亚州等主要州呈上升趋势，数百万因遏制病毒而在经济关闭中失去保险的工人可以依靠健康法作为备份。
白宫称佩洛西只是在玩政治。发言人贾德迪尔(Judd Deere)周三在一份声明中表示:“民主党人不应再陷入党派游戏，而应继续在这些重要问题上与总统合作，确保我们的国家从这场流行病中走出来，变得比以往任何时候都更强大。”。
佩洛西的立法在共和党控制的参议院没有机会。
她的法案将扩大补贴，让更多的人有资格享受《反腐败法》的覆盖。这将在财政上挤压一些拒绝根据健康法扩大医疗补助的州。它还将赋予医疗保险系统协商处方药价格的权力——特朗普曾经支持但后来放弃了这一立场。
它还将取消特朗普政府扩大短期保险计划的做法，这些计划不必覆盖先前存在的医疗状况，民主党人表示，这将损害美国反腐败法案的核心成就。
民主党在2018年因捍卫医疗保健法赢得了众议院的控制权。从那以后，众议院以这样或那样的方式对佩洛西计划中的大部分措施进行了投票。
但是，正如民主党国会竞选委员会主席切丽·布斯托斯上个月在一份备忘录中强调的那样。更广泛的目标是让共和党人不安。
备忘录说:“各级共和党人都拥有这场诉讼对美国医疗保健的攻击。”在一场全球大流行中，他们将为他们在全党范围内对将我们的卫生保健系统陷入混乱和剥夺2000万美国人的卫生保健的痴迷负责。"
自从特朗普在2017年试图废除奥巴马的法律失败后，该法律变得越来越受欢迎，当时共和党控制了众议院和参议院。今年5月，无党派的凯撒家庭基金会的一项民意调查发现，51%的美国人对“奥巴马医改”持赞同态度，而41%的人持反对意见。
凯泽早先的一项民意调查还发现，近十分之六的人担心，如果最高法院推翻整部法律或其对已有疾病的人的保护，他们或他们的家人将失去保险。
在提交给法院的案件中，德克萨斯州和其他保守派领导的州辩称，在国会于2017年通过税收立法，取消了该法律因没有税收而不受欢迎的罚款后，反腐败法实质上被视为违宪健康保险但是保留了几乎所有美国人都有保险的要求。
保守的各州认为取消罚款会使法律所谓的个人授权违宪。得克萨斯州的美国地方法官里德·奥康纳对此表示赞同，并补充说，这项授权对于法律来说至关重要，没有它，其余的授权也必然会失效。
随着时间的推移，特朗普政府对这部法律的看法发生了变化，但它一直支持废除禁止保险公司因患者病史而歧视他们的条款。尽管如此，特朗普一再向美国人保证，有先前疾病的人仍然会受到保护。白宫和国会共和党人都没有具体说明如何做。
新奥尔良的一家联邦上诉法院发现健康法的保险要求违宪，但没有对一些受欢迎的条款做出决定，如对先前就有疾病的人的保护、医疗补助的扩大以及父母政策对26岁以下年轻人的覆盖。它将案件发回奥康纳，以确定法律的其他部分是否可以与保险要求分开，并保持不变。
支持反腐败局的民主党领导的州向最高法院上诉。尚不清楚法院是否会在11月选举前听取口头辩论。明年之前不太可能做出决定。
最高法院已经两次支持这项法律，首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨在2012年奥巴马的改选运动中令人难忘地站在最高法院的自由派一边。两次支持这项法律的大多数人仍然在法庭上。
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美联社作家马克·谢尔曼对此做出了贡献。
With a jab at Trump, Pelosi unveils new 'Obamacare' bill
WASHINGTON -- Flicking a dismissive jab at President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a plan Wednesday to expand “Obamacare," even as Trump's administration is about to file arguments in a Supreme Court case to strike it down.
Pelosi announced an upcoming floor vote on her measure, setting up a debate that will juxtapose the Democrats' top policy issue, Trump's unrelenting efforts to dismantle Obama's legacy, and the untamed coronavirus pandemic.
On Thursday, the Trump administration is expected to file papers with the Supreme Court arguing that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Pelosi wants her bill on the House floor Monday.
Trying to overturn a health insurance expansion providing coverage to about 20 million people “was wrong any time,” Pelosi said.
“Now, it is beyond stupid," she added. “Beyond stupid.”
COVID-19 cases are rising in major states like Texas, Florida and California, and millions of workers who have lost coverage in the economic shutdown to contain the virus can rely on the health law as a backup.
The White House said Pelosi is just playing politics. “Instead of diving back into partisan games, Democrats should continue to work with the president on these important issues and ensuring our country emerges from this pandemic stronger than ever,” spokesman Judd Deere said Wednesday in a statement.
Pelosi's legislation has no chance in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Her bill would expand subsidies, allowing more people to qualify for coverage under the ACA. It would financially squeeze some states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the health law. And it would empower Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices — a position Trump once favored but later abandoned.
It would also undo the Trump administration's expansion of short-term insurance plans that don't have to cover preexisting medical conditions, something Democrats say will undermine a central achievement of the ACA.
Democrats won control of the House in 2018 on their defense of the health care law. Since then, that chamber has voted on most of the measures in Pelosi's plan in one form or another.
But, as underscored in a memo last month led by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., the broader goal is to make Republicans squirm.
“Republicans at all levels own this lawsuit’s attack on Americans’ health care,” said the memo. “They will be held responsible for their party-wide obsession with throwing our health care system into chaos and stripping health care from 20 million Americans during a global pandemic.”
Obama's law has grown more popular since Trump's unsuccessful effort to repeal it in 2017, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate. In May, a poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that 51% of Americans view “Obamacare” favorably while 41% have unfavorable views.
An earlier Kaiser poll found also found that nearly 6 in 10 are worried they or someone in their family will lose coverage if the Supreme Court overturns either the entire law or its protections for people with preexisting medical conditions.
In the case before the court, Texas and other conservative-led states argue that the ACA was essentially rendered unconstitutional after Congress passed tax legislation in 2017 that eliminated the law's unpopular fines for not having health insurance, but left in place its requirement that virtually all Americans have coverage.
The conservative states argued that elimination of the fines made the law’s so-called individual mandate unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Texas agreed, adding that the mandate was so central to the law that without it the rest must also fall.
The Trump administration’s views on the law have shifted over time, but it has always supported getting rid of provisions that prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against people on account of their medical history. Nonetheless, Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that people with preexisting conditions would still be protected. Neither the White House nor congressional Republicans have specified how.
A federal appeals court in New Orleans found the health law’s insurance requirement to be unconstitutional, but made no decision on such popular provisions as protections for people with preexisting conditions, Medicaid expansion and coverage for young adults up to age 26 on their parents’ policies. It sent the case back to O'Connor to determine whether other parts of the law can be separated from the insurance requirement, and remain in place.
Democratic-led states supporting the ACA appealed to the Supreme Court. It's unclear if the court will hear oral arguments before the November election. A decision is unlikely until next year.
The court has twice upheld the law, with Chief Justice John Roberts memorably siding with the court’s liberals in 2012, amid Obama’s reelection campaign. The majority that upheld the law twice remains on the court.
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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed.
