MEDIA STATEMENT
July 8, 2018
Contact: Adam Fox, 303-563-9108, afox@cohealthinitiative.org

DENVER – Tomorrow, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the Texas ACA court case that could strip access to health care for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans. The court case was brought by Texas and 19 other Republican-led states arguing that without the penalty for the individual mandate, having been repealed through the Republican tax bill in 2017, the entire ACA should be struck down. Colorado is a defendant in the case after the Trump Administration Department of Justice refused to defend the law as it is supposed to.

This statement can be attributed to Adam Fox, Director of Strategic Engagement of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.

“Tomorrow, this dangerous and irresponsible court case brought by Republicans in Texas and other states progresses a step closer to stripping health care from more than 600,000 Coloradans. The oral arguments we will see in favor of striking down the ACA can only be described as contrived and an outrageous legal interpretation. We are seeing right now, that the ACA continues to function quite well without the mandate penalty as the individual market has stabilized. To argue that the law cannot exist without it flies in the face of current observable reality and the law as passed by Congress.

“This extreme court case, supported by the Trump Administration and its Republican allies, threatens to roll back protections for people with pre-existing conditions, gut expanded Medicaid coverage, allow insurers to deny coverage or cancel plans arbitrarily, leave millions of Americans uninsured, and drive up health care costs.

“The American people spoke loud and clear in 2017 and rejected Republican repeal efforts. Instead of listening, they are using this court case to try to strike down the law since they failed to garner the votes in Congress to do so. Enough is enough: it’s time to end the partisan war on our health care. They should stop attacking people with pre-existing conditions, stop these disruptive attacks on our health care system, and stop threatening the health care of Coloradans.”

 

Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that represents 40+ Colorado health organizations with more than 500,000 health care consumers advocating for equitable access to high-quality, affordable health care. In 2018, CCHI received the “Get Wise” Consumer Protection award from the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).

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