LANSING — The Gander reported that Mike Rogers, Peter Meijer, and Sandy Pensler have made calls to repeal the Affordable Care Act which would result in millions of Michiganders being denied care or losing health insurance.
Rogers voted against the Affordable Care Act and described it as a “disastrous law.” Meijer signed a pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Pensler called the Affordable Care Act a “disaster” and said he’d repeal it. A repeal of the ACA means “1.3 million Michiganders would lose their insurance and about 1.8 million with pre-existing health conditions could lose critical protections.”
Read the Gander’s reporting on the Republican candidates’ vow to revoke critical health care access and increase costs for Michiganders:
The Gander: Republican Senate candidates vow to take away health insurance from 1.3 million Michiganders
- Three Republican candidates running for a chance to represent Michigan in the US Senate have each voiced support for repealing the Affordable Care Act, a move which would lead to millions of Michiganders being denied care or potentially losing coverage altogether.
- Among them: Former US Reps. Mike Rogers and Peter Meijer; and Detroit-area businessman Sandy Pensler—all of whom are candidates in next year’s Republican primary election for US Senate.
- Last month, former President Donald Trump—who spent his first term trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act—once again attacked the popular legislation, noting that he was “seriously looking at alternatives.”
- Former Republican US Rep. Mike Rogers—who spent most of his career trying to rip away reproductive rights—announced his Senate campaign in September.
- During his time in Congress, Rogers voted against the passage of the Affordable Care Act. And in 2012, he vowed to “redouble” efforts to elect more Republicans who also wanted to gut the legislation which, at the time, he labeled as a “disastrous law.”
- Meijer has also said he opposes abortion rights—even in cases of rape—and that he supports federal legislation to ban or restrict abortion. But that’s not the only healthcare he’s against.
- …Meijer has vowed to support the former president’s renewed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, if elected. In 2020, he signed a pledge to do just that.
- On the campaign trail in 2018, Pensler made it clear that he opposes reproductive rights across the country—even once labeling the precedent set in Roe v. Wade as “tyrannical.” As a businessman, Pensler has also long opposed efforts to increase the minimum wage in Michigan, and has said that former President Donald Trump’s policies were “terrific.”
- And just like Rogers, Pensler has also labeled the Affordable Care Act as a “disaster” and made it clear that he wouldn’t think twice about repealing the law if he was elected to Congress.
- Repealing the Affordable Care Act would rip away healthcare insurance from nearly 40 million Americans who get coverage through the ACA marketplace or its Medicaid expansion and enable insurance companies to once again deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions.
- In Michigan, about 1.3 million people would lose their insurance and about 1.8 million with pre-existing health conditions could lose critical protections, federal estimates show.
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