What's at stake

Dear Friend,

We are still very much in the middle of a pandemic that has affected all of us. We have lost more than 210,000 of our fellow Americans to Covid-19. More than 7 million Americans have been infected by the coronavirus. And cases are starting to climb again in New Mexico and across the country. Over just this past week, the virus hospitalized the president and spread to numerous people at the White House and in the United States Senate.

There is still so much we need to do to stop the spread of the coronavirus, support families, workers, and businesses who are struggling, and rebuild our communities. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans urgently need to come back to the negotiation table and help us pass public health and economic relief measures before this crisis gets any worse. There is no excuse for them to place their political agenda for the Supreme Court--including their desire to rip away health coverage from Americans with pre-existing conditions--before our duty to protect the health and economic well-being of our constituents during this emergency.

Clearly, now is not the time for a mad rush through a confirmation process for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. That is especially true because moving forward with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the president's nominee to replace Justice Ginsburg, would be a direct attack on the critical health care protections in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Barrett has repeatedly and publicly criticized the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and said that the Supreme Court should "invalidate" it. She might have a chance to do just that if Senate Republicans confirm her. That's because there is a Trump-backed legal case against the ACA scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court on November 10--just a week after the election.

If enough of the Supreme Court justices agree with this Trump-backed legal case, their ruling would threaten the very survival of the ACA and potentially rip away lifesaving health coverage from millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic. This would threaten the more than 250,000 New Mexicans who have benefitted from the ACA's Medicaid expansion. It would also mean discrimination, higher costs, and even outright denial of coverage for the more than 800,000 New Mexicans living with pre-existing conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and, yes, Covid-19.

This fight is not over yet. Please keep raising your voice to call on the Senate to protect Americans' health care. I will keep doing everything in my power to stand up for you.

Sincerely,

MARTIN HEINRICH

United States Senator