Hartford, CT – Attorney General William Tong today issued the following statement regarding the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act individual mandate.

“The stakes, in this case, could not be higher. Our entire healthcare system hangs in the balance,” said Attorney General Tong. “We’re going to be fighting on behalf of cancer survivors, young adults, pregnant women, people with diabetes, and hundreds of thousands more in Connecticut whose healthcare is under attack. The Trump Administration is going to have to explain to the Court and the American people why it thinks cancer survivors and others with so-called pre-existing conditions should be denied coverage. Our side has the stronger argument, as a matter of law and principle.”

Connecticut joined a California-led coalition of 20 states and Washington D.C. in January in filing a petition to the Court seeking review of a Fifth Circuit decision in Texas v. U.S. That decision held the individual mandate of the ACA was unconstitutional and called into question whether the remaining provisions of the law could still stand, including those protecting and providing coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions. Attorney General Tong and the coalition petitioned the Court to take up the case and resolve it before the end of the Court’s current term in June.

In Connecticut alone, 250,000 residents have benefited from the expansion of Medicaid. Thousands of young adults under the age of 26 have health insurance through their parents’ plans. Nearly half a million residents with pre-existing conditions have health coverage as a result of ACA protections.

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