Rick Scott is all about protecting those sweet sweet pre-existing conditions, baby

Republican senate candidate Rick Scott, who as governor of Florida is currently suing to end the federal requirement that insurance companies must cover pre-existing conditions, released a heartwarming new ad today saying he's in support of *squints at notes* covering pre-existing conditions.

The 30-second ad, titled "It's Personal," shows a somber Scott reflecting on how he comes from a family that had to travel 200 miles for health care services, and had to deal with pre-existing health issues, so you know, it's a very personal topic that he understands very well.

"I support forcing insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions," says Scott in the ad, while somehow sending his body's last remnants of human blood to his head to form a straight face.

He also takes a few shots at incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson for "playing politics" by highlighting Scott's horrifying past on healthcare. "For Senator Nelson," says Scott, pre-existing conditions protections are "just another political issue."

But not for Scott, though. Yep. No politics from Rick Scott, a man who became governor right after overseeing a for-profit health care company involved in the largest medicare fraud in U.S. history, and more importantly, based his entire 2010 campaign on repealing "Obamacare."


At this point Scott has to know that he's running for senator in a state that has led the nation in Affordable Care sign-ups, not to mention saw its uninsured rate drop from 20 percent (one of the highest in the country) to 12.5 percent.

However, on Feb. 26, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi joined 17 other states in a lawsuit to overturn the ACA, stating that it's "unlawful." Scott has since argued that Bondi entered the lawsuit without his approval, but has yet to withdraw from the litigation.

Though the ACA has always been controversial among conservatives, the part about protecting pre-existing conditions has been almost universally embraced, and despite critics continuing to call out Scott for his attacks on pre-existing coverage, the governor has been mostly mum about the current lawsuit.

In fact, he avoids any talk of it.

Last June, Democrats in the state’s congressional delegation sent a letter to Scott, asking him to withdraw the lawsuit. "If successful, this dangerous lawsuit that you and Attorney General Bondi have joined will harm roughly 130 million Americans, including 7.8 million Floridians, who have a pre-existing condition," the Democratic lawmakers wrote. "And it will take us back to a time when health insurers oftentimes outright rejected, or offered severely limited coverage to, Americans with such conditions." Obviously, Scott didn't respond.

Switching sides on an issue to save face is classic Rick Scott. He pulled this same little maneuver last September, tweeting that only he will save Medicare, despite he and his Republican colleagues vowing to gut the program and replace it with the old "private voucher" scheme.

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