California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is among 14 attorneys general who are banding together in support of a legal action against the Trump Administration for failing to allow greater coverage of the Affordable Care Act during the COVID-19 pandemic. Becerra and his counterparts are backing the lawsuit by City of Chicago officials who claim the U.S. Health and Human Services should have created a special enrollment period for individuals in the 38 states that rely on the federal exchange, HealthCare.Gov, for health insurance.
The attorneys general argue that there is both a critical need for and a legal obligation to create a special enrollment period to help people who have lost a job during the pandemic and have no other way to obtain healthcare coverage. They make the claim that the 12 states currently running their own exchanges, including California, have already done so, and thousands of individuals have benefited as a result.
"As this country faces dueling economic and public health crises, HHS's refusal to open enrollment on the federal exchange website is absolutely unconscionable," said Becerra. "This is a time when we need our leaders to step up. Yet the Trump Administration continues to ignore the realities of millions of Americans who find themselves without healthcare in the midst of a devastating pandemic — once again putting its animosity towards the ACA over people."
Becerra is joined in filing a brief with the court by the attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Read the full legal brief here.