CO Advocates: No Matter Which Version the Republicans Pass, Coloradans Will Be Harmed While the Wealthiest Get Tax Breaks
This statement can be attributed to Adam Fox, Coalition Organizer for the Protect Our Care Colorado Coalition:
The U.S. Senate took a dangerous vote today to start debate on a mystery bill that would affect 1/6th of our economy and strip coverage from 22-32 million Americans.
Regardless of which version of a repeal moves forward, CBO analyses show the bill would throw the individual market into chaos and gut Medicaid for vulnerable Coloradans. No matter how much the Republicans try to buy back votes with additional carve outs, it still means at least 22 million Americans lose coverage. Premiums will go up 20 percent, Medicaid will be devastated by at least $1 trillion in cuts-leaving a crater of billions of dollars in Colorado’s budget, and critical consumer protections disappear — all to give the wealthy and medical corporations a giant tax break.
Americans — including Republican voters — want Republicans to work with Democrats on bipartisan reforms that improve, not decimate, our health care system. In fact, people prefer the ACA over the GOP’s repeal by a 2-to-1 margin (50% – 24%) according to the recent Washington Post/ABC poll, while an analysis by an MIT professor found health care repeal is the least popular piece of legislation in 3 decades.
Yet Senator Gardner has ignored the American people and his constituents, despite months of them reaching out, and is now days away from a vote to rip away health care from millions. The fact that Senator Cory Gardner voted to debate an unknown bill of this magnitude is utterly irresponsible. Remember the GOP’s pledge to read the bill? There will be no chance for our Senators to do that on this bill with a amendments and a vote expected by the end of the week.
This fight to protect our care is far from over. We ask Senator Cory Gardner to once and for all do right by his constituents and commit to opposing this utterly harmful and irresponsible bill that throws 1/6th of our economy into chaos and destroys the health care of more than 600,000 Coloradans.
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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.