Dayton Daily News | Jessica Wehrman
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he filed a brief opposing a case that would strike down the entire 2010 Affordable Care Act because he believes that certain provisions in the law — such as one protecting pre–existing conditions — should remain.
“If a patient has a tumor, you don’t kill the patient,” Yost told a panel hosted by Axios, a Washington, D.C.–based news organization Wednesday. “You cut the tumor out and that’s what we think should happen here.”
Yost drew national attention Monday when he and fellow Republican Timothy Fox, the attorney general of Montana, filed an amicus brief with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking the judges to preserve portions of the Affordable Care Act. That position is at odds with many of his fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who as Ohio attorney general joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn the health care law. DeWine has since said he supports protecting coverage of pre-existing conditions.
A U.S. District Court judge in Texas threw out the entire health-care law — commonly known as Obamacare — in December, saying it was unconstitutional after Congress eliminated the “individual mandate” tax penalty for failing to obtain health insurance. Yost’s filing came in an appeal of that ruling.
Yost argues that while the act’s individual mandate doesn’t pass constitutional muster, other provisions of the law should be preserved.