GOP Congressman Says People With Pre-Existing Conditions Are Bad People Who Should Pay More

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) tried to justify allowing insurance companies to charge people with pre-existing conditions more by claiming that people with pre-existing conditions lead bad lives.

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On CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, Rep. Brooks said, “My understand is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all of these costs thereby reducing the costs to those people who lead good lives. They’re healthy. They’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy, and right now, those are the people who have done things the right way, who are seeing their costs skyrocketing.”

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Brooks realized that what he just said sounded really bad, so he tried to clear it up by saying, “Now, in fairness, a lot of those people with pre-existing conditions have those conditions through no fault of their own, and I think our society, under those circumstances, needs to help. The challenge though is that it’s a tough balancing act.”

The same Republican Party that bashed Michelle Obama for trying to get Americans to eat healthier is now judging people as good or bad based on whether or not a person has a pre-existing condition.

The rationale behind the Republican health care legislation has always been that sick people are bad people who deserve to pay more for their health care because they did something wrong. What they did wrong was get sick, or develop a pre-existing condition.

Who gets to decide whether or not a pre-existing condition deserves more health care coverage? According to Trumpcare, the insurance companies will make that decision. Republicans have moved from imaginary Obamacare death panels to empowering insurance companies to act as real death panels.

People with pre-existing conditions did not get sick due to some moral failing, and this argument is one of the main reasons why voters will make Republicans pay if they repeal Obamacare.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association