Raleigh – Today, Senator Tillis again voted to expand “junk” health insurance plans that are “so skimpy that they offer no meaningful coverage.” The plans do not need to cover pre-existing conditions or prescription drugs, do not need to offer maternity benefits, would drive up health care costs for North Carolinians, and are opposed by patient groups including the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association. Yet Tillis has now voted not once but twice to expand the “junk” plans.

“Senator Tillis today yet again voted to saddle North Carolinians with higher costs, weakened protections for pre-existing conditions, and ‘junk’ insurance plans that simply don’t help families cover the bills,” NCDP spokesman Robert Howard said. “Unfortunately for North Carolinians struggling to afford the rising cost of health care, this is more of the same from a Senator who has bragged about blocking Medicaid expansion, supports a reckless lawsuit that would gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and called himself courageous for voting to gut vital consumer protections and send costs soaring. With his latest vote to uphold junk plans, Senator Tillis continues to show that he stands with giant insurance and pharmaceutical CEOs and his wealthy special interest donors, not North Carolina families.”

Senator Tillis has repeatedly supported policies that are wrong for North Carolinians’ health care. He said he would vote for “outright repeal” of the ACA “every time it comes to the floor,” later calling his vote to do just that “courageous.” He bragged that he “made it illegal to expand Medicaid” in North Carolina. He supports “anything” that takes the ACA “off the table” including a reckless lawsuit that guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions. And he has tried to paper over that toxic record by pushing a “false promise” that “would do little to protect people with pre-existing conditions.”