Senatorial candidates spar over pre-existing conditions
By Dave Williams
Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A dispute broke out last week between U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff over whether the incumbent supports requiring health insurance plans to cover pre-existing conditions.
Perdue launched a television ad highlighting his commitment to coverage for pre-existing conditions that features his younger sister, Debbie Perdue, a cancer survivor.
“I’ve lived this problem,” she says in the ad. “David’s making a difference for all of us, and anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know my big brother’s heart.”
Perdue is a co-sponsor of the Protect Act, Republican-backed legislation introduced last year by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., that guarantees health care coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions.
But Ossoff’s campaign accused Perdue of siding with other Republicans in efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, legislation then-President Obama steered through a Democratic Congress in 2010 that guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions.
“Sen. Perdue voted at least three times to gut protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, and last month he said he supports Trump’s Supreme Court lawsuit to overturn the ACA, which would completely destroy protections for pre-existing conditions,” Jake Best, Ossoff’s press secretary, said.
PolitiFact, a nonprofit project operated by the Florida-based Poynter Institute, criticized the Protect Act for lacking provisions that would ensure health plans covering pre-existing conditions are affordable.
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