Chicago, Other Cities Sue Trump Over Effort To 'Sabotage' Obamacare
BALTIMORE (CBS/AP) -- Chicago and several other cities are suing the Trump administration, for allegedly sabotaging President Barack Obama's signature health care overhaul, the Affordable Care Act.
"The President has an established obligation to enforce laws, and he cannot allow his personal politics to override the will of Congress," Chicago Corporation Counsel Ed Siskel said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on behalf of Baltimore; Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago; and Charlottesville, Virginia. The suit names President Donald Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and CMS Administrator Seema Verma as defendants.
The cities allege the administration's actions are discouraging people from enrolling in health care plans.
The lawsuit also alleges the Trump administration's efforts to "intentionally and unlawfully sabotage" the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, has harmed people who do buy health care through ACA exchanges. Several insurance companies have left the marketplaces since the Trump administration began dismantling some parts of the program, and some people have seen significant increases in their premiums as a result.
"President Trump said himself that he wanted the Affordable Care Act to explode, and his administration has been busy laying the dynamite," said Democracy Forward Executive Director Anne Harkavy. "The President's actions are not just detrimental to American families, they're a violation of the constitutional duty he swore to uphold."
The cities suing the Trump administration have argued the rising number of uninsured and underinsured people in the U.S. will cost taxpayers, who will have to subsidize public clinics and public hospitals that will have to serve more patients without sufficient insurance, and a population that will be less healthy as a result of having less insurance.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)