Rep. Martha McSally (R), her party’s nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, was a staunch supporter of the Trumpcare legislation to repeal Obamacare, literally telling her Republican House colleagues that they needed to get the “fucking thing” done. Now that she is under fire for her vote for the wildly unpopular legislation, she is simply lying to her constituents and pretending that the bill would not have eliminated insurance protections for the more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing medical conditions.
In a KTAR radio interview on Wednesday, McSally was asked about ads claiming that McSally would have let insurance companies discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions.
At about the 10 minute mark, McSally forcefully and falsely denied the veracity of these ads. “It’s a lie, it is a flat-out lie, we’re seeing it around the country. This is what the Democrats decided to run on, but it’s a lie,” she said.
“I voted for a bill to protect pre-existing conditions. Our health care bill specifically says that insurance companies cannot ever deny anybody health insurance with pre-existing conditions. I actually had an amendment I co-sponsored for additional resources to support people with pre-existing conditions to make sure premiums were kept low at the state level,” she argued.
But while the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, included provisions to ensure that those with pre-existing conditions could not only get insurance but that they could get affordable insurance, the Trumpcare legislation would have only required that insurers offer plans at whatever price they deem fit.
Other Republican incumbents around the country have been running ads falsely claiming that their votes for Trumpcare somehow protected against price discrimination for constituents with pre-existing conditions, including Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) and Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), David Young (R-IA), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Rep. George Holding (R-NC), and Steve Chabot (R-OH).
The Washington Post has given a “three Pinocchios” rating to the claim that the Republican health care plan would not have discriminated against people with pre-existing conditions.
Like other candidates, McSally simply hopes voters buy her disinformation.
“It is a flat out lie,” McSally concluded. “My vote was to protect people, my heart is to protect people, and we’ve got to have solutions that are affordable and available for people to have health insurance and good health care.”