“It’s like telling somebody you are going to give them an umbrella and you just hand them the stick part”
Senator Cory Gardner is still lying about his crusade to gut coverage for pre-existing conditions, but fact checkers are joining the outcry from experts and advocates to expose the truth.
A 9News Truth Test says Gardner’s ad “leaves out one detail” — that his eight-line bill “does not require insurance companies to sell coverage to someone with preexisting conditions.”
Seems like a pretty important detail ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As Kyle Clark put it, “politicians will use all sorts of things as shields to keep from getting criticized” but Gardner’s stunt bill is “like telling somebody you are going to give them an umbrella and you just hand them the stick part.”
Even Gardner’s own staff has stopped defending the bill — carefully claiming that Gardner himself “says it guarantees coverage” (so he must be right!) and pointing to a McConnell-tied conservative dark money group as their only backup, despite health care experts and several independent fact checkers all saying Gardner’s bill still allows insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Watch HERE or below:
ZELINGER: This is not true. If Obamacare were to be repealed, insurance companies would not necessarily be required to take you on in the first place. Gardner’s eight-line bill states insurance companies would have to cover your pre-existing condition. What it does not include is this section from the 906-page Affordable Care Act — guaranteed availability of coverage. Each health insurance insurer must accept every employer and individual that applies for coverage.
If the Affordable Care Act were to be repealed, that guarantee goes away. We heard that last month from the vice president of Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on health issues. The Colorado Sun also reported that Gardner’s bill has no such explicit provision. As we’ve told you in two previous truth tests, Gardner has a history of voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act or limit its funding. Requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions currently exists under the Affordable Care Act.
ZELINGER: Here’s why this is a talking point right now, November 10th, one week after the election, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments about a challenge to the Affordable Care Act and the justices’ opinion which will come out sometime in 2021 will determine whether or not it still exists.
CLARK: So, Marshall, first off, God bless Cory Gardner’s mom. Second, just to recap, Senator Gardner’s plan to cover preexisting conditions allows insurance companies to reject you in the first place for having a preexisting condition?
ZELINGER: It just doesn’t require an insurance company to take you on in the first place, which the senator’s campaign is fighting back against saying that it does exactly that. Although, based on what you just saw from the 900-page Affordable Care Act, there is a specific guaranteed section that is not in Cory Gardner’s bill — which also doesn’t have a definition section of what different terms means. It does not reference what part of the United States Code it would adjust — something that’s in many other Cory Gardner bills.
CLARK: It is like telling somebody you are going to give them an umbrella and you just hand them the stick part.
