Healthcare

Repealing Obamacare May Violate International Law

Written by SK Ashby

According to the Washington Post, the United Nations has informed the Trump regime that kicking 30 million people off their healthcare may violate international law and human rights.

This is news to us and it was apparently news to congressional leadership who weren't aware of it because it was buried by the White House.

A confidential, five-page “urgent appeal” from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, sent to the Trump administration, cautions that the repeal of the Affordable Care Act could put the United States at odds with its international obligations. [...]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office said they didn’t receive the letter, and officials in House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s offices said Tuesday that they were unaware of it. The letter did make its way to the Department of Health and Human Services, where an employee leaked it to congressional Democratic leadership. A State Department spokesman said my inquiry was “the first I’m hearing of this.”

More specifically, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights says repealing the law without passing an adequate replacement could violate human rights. As you know, the GOP's "replacement," if you could even call it that, is not adequate.

I don't expected this will change the calculus for congressional Republicans who still want to repeal the law, but I'm sure this is how it would be covered by the international press.

As of this writing, the House Freedom Caucus has announced their support for a repeal bill that eliminates coverage for pre-existing conditions, but some moderate Republicans in the so-called Tuesday Group have already committed to protecting coverage for pre-existing conditions, meaning it may be no closer to passing.

In any event, the rest of the world is looking at us in horror.