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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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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.

Battle Looms Over ACA's Pre-Existing Conditions Coverage

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Monday, June 18, 2018   

CONCORD, N.H. – It promises to be a long, bumpy road ahead for the Department of Justice, which essentially is arguing against the Affordable Care Act in federal court where DOJ attorneys usually defend federal policies.

The Trump administration opposes provisions in the ACA, passed during the Obama administration, that require insurance companies to accept all applicants. If they don't that likely would mean an end to health insurance for many people with preexisting conditions.

Almost 600,00 Granite Staters have pre-existing conditions, and a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows 70 percent of Americans want affordable, health insurance protections for those people.

Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow with the foundation, says without it, insurance companies could opt to end coverage for any number of ailments.

"It didn't have to be something serious like HIV or diabetes,” she states. “It could be allergies, it could be earaches in little kids, really any health condition. Kind of part of the human condition at some point to have some health problem."

While the Trump administration joined 20 states in this month's brief that says the ACA is unconstitutional, attorneys general from 16 states have filed a brief defending the law.

New Hampshire hasn't joined litigation on either side yet, but according to Pollitz, the Affordable Care Act will continue to be a hot topic as local elections come up.

"Now the Trump administration has said that they will not defend the law, so it's going to be kind of a battle of the states in federal court over the constitutionality of these market reforms," she states.

Last week on social media, Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said, "This is outrageous. After repeated failed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in Congress, the Trump administration is once again trying to allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and older Americans."


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