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Ohio's Attorney General Asks Court Not To Scrap Obamacare

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is asking a federal court not to throw out all of the Affordable Care Act.
ANDY CHOW
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is asking a federal court not to throw out all of the Affordable Care Act.

Ohio’s Republican attorney general is asking a federal court not to strike down the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional. He’s filed a brief in a lawsuit over the ACA, or Obamacare, after the Trump administration asked for the entire law to be thrown out.

Attorney General Dave Yost says he agrees with a December ruling from a district court judge in Texas that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, but he disagrees with the judge’s decision that the entire law must be thrown out. Yost says other provisions are OK, such as mandated coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

He said Ohio isn’t supporting Democrats or Republicans in this case.

“We’re asking for a very narrow textual interpretation that says, even though the one piece is unconstitutional, people with pre-existing conditions are still protected," he said.

Yost says there are 1.9 million Ohioans with pre-existing conditions. This week the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to the court saying the entire law should be scrapped.

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Karen Kasler
Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.
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