Governor Cuomo and Attorney General Underwood File Suit to Block Trump Administration’s Attempt to Undermine Affordable Care Act
Association Health Plan Rule Expands Health Plans That Have a Long History of Fraud, Mismanagement, and Abuse – Part of an Effort to Evade Consumer Protections and Sabotage the ACA
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today filed a lawsuit as part of a coalition of twelve states challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s Association Health Plan Rule, which expands the criteria for forming AHPs in order to evade consumer protections and sabotage the Affordable Care Act. AHPs have a long history of fraud, mismanagement, and abuse, with millions in unpaid claims for policyholders and providers, often leading to consumer bankruptcies.
“Our number one priority is the health and safety of New Yorkers, and we have zero tolerance for any action that undermines the Affordable Care Act and puts health care coverage at risk for thousands of people,” Governor Cuomo said. “The Trump Administration is once again waging an assault against the fundamental rights of Americans to have access to safe, high quality, affordable health care. We are suing the federal government to protect health care for New Yorkers and to fight back against these federal attacks.”
“The Trump administration’s AHP Rule is nothing more than an unlawful end run around the consumer protections enshrined in the Affordable Care Act — part of President Trump’s continued efforts to sabotage our health care system,” said Attorney General Underwood. “Our lawsuit today seeks to safeguard federal protections under the ACA that help guarantee access to quality, affordable health care.”
I supported the Affordable Care Act when I was a member of Congress, and lost my seat as a result,” said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul. “The Trump administration is continuing to seek to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and I join the Governor in our fight to ensure affordable and quality health care for all New Yorkers. Access to health care is a basic human right, and this lawsuit looks to protect those rights that are under attack by the federal government.”
The complaint was led by New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by the Attorneys General of New York, Massachusetts, District of Columbia, California, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington.
Over the last few decades, Congress has legislated – including through the ACA – to protect health care consumers from AHPs’ fraudulent conduct and to ensure consumers have comprehensive health coverage without having higher premiums or fewer benefits based on a pre-existing condition. The AHP Rule would undo critical federal consumer protections and unduly expand access to AHPs without sufficient justification or consideration of the consequences.
President Trump himself cited the sabotage of the ACA as the clear purpose of the AHP Rule, proclaiming that it was a “truly historic step in our efforts to rescue Americans from Obamacare and the Obamacare nightmare” and would “escape some of Obamacare’s most burdensome mandates.”
The lawsuit filed today alleges that the Department of Labor violated the Administrative Procedures Act when it promulgated the AHP rule. The lawsuit also argues that the Rule violates both the ACA and the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and that it unlawfully reverses decades of agency and judicial interpretation of ERISA’s key terms, with the primary purpose of undermining the ACA and without accounting for increased risk of fraud and harm to consumers based on a longstanding history of such conduct by similar plans. The Attorneys General are urging that the AHP Rule be vacated.
