DENVER – It’s a result of health-care reform that has got U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner sick.
Gardner circled back around to the Obamacare theme Monday, attacking U.S. Sen. Mark Udall for insurance cancellations seen after implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Gardner’s latest television ad attacking opponent Udall is nothing new in the tight U.S. Senate race. The Republican congressman from Yuma has been hammering Udall about the cancellations since late February when Gardner navigated a congested field of GOP candidates to emerge the leader.
Gardner reminded voters that an estimated 335,000 Coloradans received cancellations as a result of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, largely because new standards rendered many of those policies insufficient or not cost effective.
The ad takes a personal approach to the issue, with Gardner clutching what appears to be the cancellation notice he received concerning his own family’s policy. Gardner opted out of the federal health benefits that Congress receives and kept his own policy.
He once again summoned Udall’s now infamous 2009 comment, “If you have an insurance policy you like ... you’ll be able to keep that doctor or that insurance policy.”
“When Mark Udall voted for Obamacare, he promised us if we liked our health-care plan, we could keep it. Well, you know how that worked out,” Gardner says in the ad. “I got a letter saying my family’s plan was canceled. ... You might have one of those letters in your mailbox right now.”
Udall’s campaign quickly fired back, suggesting that Gardner would like to return to a “broken health-care system that put insurance companies in charge of Coloradans’ care.”
“Coloradans want a senator like Mark Udall who is fighting to make the new health-care law work for Colorado, not a partisan grandstander like Rep. Gardner who would let insurers discriminate against Coloradans with pre-existing conditions,” said Kristin Lynch, spokeswoman for the Udall campaign.
Lynch also said that last November, Udall introduced legislation to modify the Affordable Care Act, so that policyholders would be allowed to keep their current plans for two years, despite a cancellation.
Health-reform supporters also point out that about 92 percent of those receiving cancellations were offered renewal options. Consumers could also in some cases purchase better and cheaper policies on the new Connect for Health Colorado online insurance marketplace.
Obamacare supporters also highlight the state’s uninsured rate, which has dropped six points from 17 percent in 2013 to 11 percent this July, the fifth-biggest drop of any state.
“Bottom line is that this is a bogus argument from Gardner,” said Laura Chapin, state director of the pro-Affordable Care Act group Protect Your Care. “I got the same letters he did – one in July saying I’d be getting more info on the new, compliant plans ... and another in August with renewal instructions and a list of available plans. I ended up getting a silver plan. ...
“If I was capable of understanding the letter and how to renew my insurance, why wasn’t Cory Gardner?” Chapin asked.
Amy Downs, senior director for policy and analysis at the Colorado Health Institute, said that Benjamin Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics at the Harvard School of Public Health, found that most of the plans would have been canceled anyway. The study found that in 2012, 6.2 million out of the 10.8 million individuals in the individual market did not retain coverage.
“This is a very transient population,” Downs explained. “Turnover in this market is incredibly high.”
But Gardner said he is hearing too many stories like his, in which cancellations resulted in an inconvenience and burden.
“It’s time we have a new generation of leadership in the Senate that is focused on reforming our health-care system for the next generation,” Gardner said in a statement.
“When our family’s health-care plan was canceled because of Obamacare last year, we felt firsthand the painful effects of Senator Udall’s support for Obamacare. Countless families have seen their premiums rise, lost access to their doctors or lost their health-insurances plans altogether – they have Senator Udall to thank.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
This story was changed to more accurately reflect renewal options for those receiving cancellations.
