Paul Ryan says 'you cannot be denied coverage if you have a pre-existing condition' under the AHCA

Under the American Health Care Act, which Republicans passed in the House on Thursday, "no matter what, you cannot be denied coverage if you have a pre-existing condition," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

The host pushed back, arguing that insurance companies can charge people higher rates for pre-existing conditions even if they can't deny coverage. "You can't charge people more if they keep continuous coverage," Ryan replied, making a comparison to "waiting until your house is on fire to then buy your homeowner's insurance. You want to make sure that people stay covered to keep the cost down."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.