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By Julia Shumway | Arizona Capitol Times
One of the 90 bills Gov. Doug Ducey signed this year enshrines in state statute a key tenet of the Obama administration’s signature health care law — that insurers provide health coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
And while legislative Democrats, health care policy wonks and patients with pre-existing conditions say the new law doesn’t go nearly far enough, that the law passed unanimously through one chamber and with only token opposition through the other marks a sea change in the way politicians view health policy.
The new law, sponsored by Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, and championed by Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, takes effect only if the U.S. Supreme Court rules the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, likely through a case brought by Brnovich and other Republican attorneys general that the court could decide as early as this fall.
