?Failed high-risk pools break Coffman’s many promises to protect people with pre-existing conditions
MEDIA STATEMENT
May 3, 2017
Contact: Katie Reinisch, 303-653-1009, katie@progressive-promotions.com
Adam Fox, 303-839-1261, afox@cohealthinitiative.org
This statement can be attributed to Adam Fox of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and the Protect Our Care Colorado Coalition:
“Recently proposed changes to marginally increase funding for high-risk pools in the American Health Care Act just throw money at a failed policy idea. Coloradans have experience with high-risk pools from before the Affordable Care Act, and it doesn’t work. Before the ACA, Coloradans trying to access our high-risk pool got stuck on waiting lists for coverage, faced higher premiums and limits on coverage, and couldn’t get the care they needed. This only flushes money down the drain and removes protections for people with pre-existing conditions.”
“What’s worse is that Colorado’s Representative Mike Coffman has forgotten his promise to Coloradans with pre-existing conditions to protect them. Time and again, he has promised to maintain these protections. However he has flipflopped and now says he will support the American Health Care Act that waives pre-existing condition coverage and guts $14 billion from Colorado’s Medicaid program leaving 600,000 Coloradans without coverage and a gaping hole in our state budget. The bill makes insurance less affordable while giving giant tax breaks to millionaires and insurance and pharmaceutical CEOs.”
“An additional $8 billion doesn’t magically make high-risk pools work, and Coffman, as a fiscal conservative, should know better than to throw money at a failed idea. Republicans in the House can do all the backroom vote-trading they want; their bill will still harm millions of people in America and hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, and this bill breaks the promise to protect people with pre-existing conditions.”
“This isn’t what people in America or Colorado want. It is time for the GOP to drop this crazed fixation on repeal — and move on.”
Please see attached record of Rep. Coffman’s promises regarding pre-existing conditions
Protect Our Care Colorado is a coalition of 44 organizations in Colorado advocating to protect the health care of Coloradans. To learn more the coalition, visit ProtectOurCareCo.org.