WILMINGTON, Del. – Yesterday, just hours before the U.S. Senate voted on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons and Sen. Tom Carper (both D-Del.) joined Delawareans who are benefitting from the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, highlighting what's at stake if the landmark health care law is overturned.

Judge Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to serve on the Supreme Court threatens the health care protections that millions of Americans currently have under the ACA, including protections for the nearly 400,000 Delawareans living with preexisting conditions.

"It's hard enough to fight the cancer. We shouldn't also have to fight to live," said Jan White, a small business owner from Newark who has been battling Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma for four years. "We need the ACA protections."

"The ACA is not just benefiting me but thousands of Delawareans and millions of Americans all across this country," said Carrie Dennis-Mayer, a small business owner from Middletown, Delaware. "What is interesting is that most people do not know the need for the Affordable Care Act until they really need it. And if you fall between the cracks of healthcare insecurity and healthcare uncertainty, then trust me, you're grateful that ACA is there to help you."

"It is amazing to me, galling to me, angering to me, that in the middle of a pandemic – a global health pandemic that has killed more than 225,000 Americans and infected more than 8,500,000 Americans – that the Trump administration is seeking to take away the protections of the Affordable Care Act from a majority of Americans," said Senator Coons, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Don't take my word for it; there's a filing in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that will be argued one week from the election. So, we are one week from an election and two weeks from an argument in the Supreme Court where the ACA is at risk."

"Having failed nearly 100 times to repeal or chip away at the Affordable Care Act in Congress, Donald Trump and many of our Republican colleagues are now counting on the Supreme Court to do their work for them. And, with Amy Coney Barrett's nomination, they are within one vote on the Supreme Court of achieving their goal," said Senator Carper. "This isn't a hypothetical. This nomination – and a subsequent ruling on the Republican lawsuit to strike down the ACA in its entirety – could have all too real and devastating consequences for Delawareans like Jan and our entire health care system, all in the midst of a deadly and unprecedented pandemic. It is shameful, and Senator Coons and I won't stop fighting to make sure Americans know just how much is at stake here."

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