Dave McCormick doesn’t want young people to stay on family health insurance plans

Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Dave McCormick was recorded saying that he does not support allowing young adults to stay on their family’s health insurance plan because it keeps them from getting jobs. McCormick has long opposed the Affordable Care Act, which allows children to get healthcare coverage through their parents’ plan up to age 26.

McCormick is challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in the election ending Nov. 5. Casey voted for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare; his campaign website says that he wants to safeguard and expand affordable health care.

In audio published by the progressive news site Heartland Signal, McCormick is asked after a Nov. 1 speech in Clearfield, northeast of Pittsburgh, about his views on Obamacare.

An unidentified person tells McCormick: “I have a big issue with Obamacare and I know President Trump wants to get rid of it. I think it’s making my grandson lazy. He’s just mooching on his parents’ couch because he doesn’t have to go get a job for insurance. Will you do anything to get rid of it?”

McCormick responds by saying he wants to reform Obamacare to reduce the costs. The other person then presses him on the provision that allows people to get coverage through their parents’ plans until age 26. 

“Is that Obamacare? A result of Obamacare?” McCormick asks. “Well, I’m not for that. I’ve got to get my kids working. They’re still on the payroll.”

The McCormick campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 72% of private employers provide any health insurance benefits for their employees, leaving many young adults who do work to rely on their families’ insurance plans.

“Pennsylvania families have relied on this provision of the Affordable Care Act for over a decade,” Casey said in a Nov. 1 press release. “Ripping this away would hurt our kids and our families. Unlike my opponent, I will always fight to ensure that every Pennsylvanian has access to reliable and affordable health care.”

An April KFF Health Tracking poll found that 62% of American adults have a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act. In Pennsylvania, the law protects millions of individuals with preexisting medical conditions from discrimination by insurers, and more than 400,000 people have health care coverage through the law’s insurance exchange. 

Former President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have made conflicting comments throughout their 2024 campaigns about whether they plan to again try to repeal the ACA should they prevail.  

McCormick has previously called for a rollback of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, including a provision that authorized the federal government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare Part D enrollees. “The best way to ensure that we get drug prices down and health care costs down is to make sure we have adequate competition,” McCormick said in an August radio interview. “And having the government negotiate pharmaceutical prices, call me a skeptic, except maybe in very select cases, where we really do have significant price increases.”

In his unsuccessful 2022 Senate campaign, McCormick criticized his Republican primary opponent Mehmet Oz for praising parts of the ACA. “Oz’s position on Obamacare,” McCormick said on social media, was “counter to conservatism & in line with Hollywood.”