How Trump can silence the Dems’ preexisting conditions lie

Across the country, Democratic ads are telling voters a big lie. Dems claim they’re protecting people with pre­existing medical conditions but Republicans would take that protection away. The idea is that ObamaCare is the only way to safeguard people with preexisting conditions. That’s false, and the outcome of the midterm elections could turn on this falsehood.

A super PAC allied with Sen. Chuck Schumer is behind many of these ads, including one targeting Republican Josh Hawley, who’s in a tight race with Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. If he’s elected, the ad claims, millions of Missourians could lose their protections. In another ad, McCaskill tells the camera “Two years ago, I beat breast cancer,” then says her opponent would do away with protections for preexisting conditions like cancer.

These ads blatantly mislead voters. Hawley’s on the record insisting that health-reform legislation must include these protections.

So is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has called on his state lawmakers to enact protections. But never mind the truth. The Democratic Governors Association is funding an ad with a breast-cancer patient saying she won’t be able to afford lifesaving treatments if Walker is reelected.

A whopping 81 percent of voters, including 80 percent of Republicans, support these protections, polls show. That’s why the GOP’s ObamaCare-repeal bill safeguarded these people by providing funding for each state to cover insurance for their sickest patients. But Republican pols failed miserably last year to explain that, opening the door for Democrats to vilify them as enemies of people with health problems.

President Trump could stop these shenanigans and also calm Americans’ anxieties with a new, free-standing reform. What’s needed is a federal fallback-insurance plan, aggressively promoted by the president, that will cover anyone turned down by an insurer. Period.

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