“Bipartisan solutions are possible if our electeds focus on good policy and not politics”
RELEASE
August 31, 2017
Contact: Katie Reinisch, 303-653-1009, katie@progressive-promotions.com
Adam Fox, 303-839-1261, afox@cohealthinitiative.org
The plan released today by Colorado Governor Hickenlooper and Ohio Governor Kasich answers the call for bipartisanship in health care and is a hopeful sign for consumers. The blueprint incorporates several key elements to stabilize the individual insurance markets, increase competition, and promote enrollment.
“This is what Congress should be discussing when they come back from recess next week: common sense bipartisan proposals that will help, not hurt people,” said Adam Fox of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. “Rather than returning to attempts to repeal the ACA that would leave millions more uninsured, Congress should work to improve the individual markets and ensure consumers have affordable access to coverage.”
The blueprint offers common sense proposals like funding cost-sharing reductions to keep insurance more affordable, creating a reinsurance program to avoid drastic spikes in premiums, and promoting enrollment so that the individual market risk pool remains stable. The plan also calls for incentivizing insurers to offer plans in counties/regions where competition is lacking, continuing payment reforms that focus on value-based care, and increasing state innovation.
“This plan shows that bipartisan solutions are possible if our electeds focus on good policy and not politics,” said Fox. “This plan will strengthen the individual market while leaving Medicaid in tact as the foundation of our health coverage system.”
Congress reconvenes next week and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has scheduled hearings that are expected to discuss many of the proposals outlined in this bipartisan plan. Governor Hickenlooper is scheduled to testify on behalf of Coloradans and present this plan to the committee.
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Protect Our Care Colorado is a coalition of 44 organizations in Colorado advocating to protect the health care of Coloradans. To learn more about the coalition, visit ProtectOurCareCo.org.