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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Fate of ACA Dominates SCOTUS Confirmation Hearing

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Tuesday, October 13, 2020   

CONCORD, N.H. -- Health care advocates say the fate of the Affordable Care Act is on the line, as the first day of Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court wrapped up.

President Donald Trump's nominee would cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the high court. Marissa Padilla was principal deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration. She said if Coney Barrett is confirmed before the high court hears a case on the ACA on November 10, the law could fall.

And that would have major consequences for New Hampshire.

"Repealing it could threaten coverage for more than 570,000 Granite Staters with pre-existing conditions," Padilla said. "Repealing the ACA could also kick more than 50,000 Granite Staters who gained coverage through Medicaid expansion off of their health insurance plans."

The Trump administration has promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions but has not offered a plan to do so. In 2017 Coney Barrett criticized Chief Justice John Roberts' vote to uphold the ACA.

Right now, the Affordable Care Act allows parents to keep their children on their insurance plan up to age 26. It also outlaws lifetime caps on insurance benefits and mandates women cannot be charged more than men for coverage.

Padilla warns a repeal would free up insurance companies to start refusing to cover prescription drug costs.

"It could also eliminate the consumer protections that prohibit drug companies right now from paying off doctors behind closed doors to influence the kind of drugs that they prescribe to patients," she said.

The ACA also mandates coverage of treatment and counseling for substance abuse and is considered key in the fight against the opioid crisis.


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