Well folks, the reviews are in. It’s been two days since Senator Cory Gardner unveiled a sham bill to try to erase his decade-long record of undermining health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and it is not looking good for him.
Health care experts and Colorado leaders have spoken out against his bogus bill that would still allow insurance companies to deny coverage to millions of people with pre-existing conditions. And John Hickenlooper has called out Gardner for using the sham bill as “a political shield” while continuing to support President Trump’s lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act during a pandemic.
Here’s what Coloradans and health care experts are saying:
The Denver Post: Silverii: Gardner’s pre-existing conditions bill exists but is just 117 words of election fodder
- Sen. Gardner’s record is not in dispute when it comes to his votes to eliminate the ACA without a replacement that protects people with preexisting conditions.
- I have a horrible autoimmune disease that is incredibly expensive to treat, and if protections for people with preexisting conditions disappear — as the Trump administration is currently trying to accomplish in court and which Cory Gardner tried to do in the Senate — then Cory Gardner’s empty bill will be worth less than the paper it was extremely recently printed on.
- To run an empty health care bill now, which accomplishes nothing except providing Gardner with a talking point in a political ad, shows that he will never take responsibility for his terrible record of voting against protecting people with preexisting conditions. Gardner must be held accountable, especially when issues are literally a matter of life or death.
Adam Fox, Colorado Consumer Health Initiative:
- This is pure politicking. If Gardner really wanted to help people with pre-existing conditions, he would protect the ACA, denounce the lawsuit against it, and make sure our Medicaid program is fully funded through the health crisis.
- This is why you need to defend the ACA @SenCoryGardner. Legislation that claims to protect people with pre-existing conditions if the manufactured lawsuit strikes the ACA down, doesn’t actually do that unless it includes all of these things.
Laura Packard, Colorado cancer survivor & health care advocate:
- Cory Gardner pretends to care about people with pre-existing conditions, but only produces platitudes and phony baloney bills. If he meant what he said, he wouldn’t have voted 9 times to strip our care. He’d work to stop the Trump health care lawsuit now.
The Durango Herald: Will pre-existing conditions be protected after Supreme Court takes up ACA challenge?
- Advocates say [Gardner’s] law is more of a stunt than a genuine protection, pointing out that Colorado law and the Affordable Care Act already require people with pre-existing conditions to be covered.
- Gardner has voted several times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, including three instances in 2017. His Senate website includes a sentence saying ‘fixing our health care system will require repealing the Affordable Care Act.’’
Andy Slavitt, former CMS Administrator:
- CO Senator @CoryGardner is proposing a bill to expressly allow insurance companies to deny people coverage & calling it the “pre-existing protections act.” Cory, your record is a pre-existing condition. And yes, it is an act.
- Cory has voted over and over to repeal the ACA & pre-ex conditions. Completely out of step with Colorado. I’ve known @Hickenlooper for a long time. He has been such an effective champion for people & health care. I don’t think Cory’s cover up bill will fool anyone.
Protect Our Care: Cory Gardner Thinks You’ll Be Fooled by His Bill That Actually Wouldn’t Protect Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions
- In addition to ensuring people with pre-existing conditions are not charged more for coverage, for any bill to fully protect people with pre-existing conditions, it must include the following provisions: preclude insurance companies from denying coverage based on health status, require coverage of essential benefits such as maternity care, cancer treatments, prescription drugs and mental health and substance use disorder treatments, and ban insurers from capping how much they will pay for medical care over a year or during a lifetime for these essential benefits. Senator Gardner’s bill includes none of these provisions.
- More than 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions are already protected by the Affordable Care Act. The only reason these protections are at risk is because Cory Gardner and Donald Trump have tried repeatedly to take them away.
- Right now Donald Trump, enabled by his Republican allies including Senator Gardner, is before the Supreme Court arguing to overturn the ACA in its entirety in the midst of a pandemic, ripping coverage away from 23 million Americans, eliminating Medicaid expansion, increasing drug costs for seniors, and ending requirements that all health insurance policies cover essential needs.
Larry Levitt, Kaiser Family Foundation:
- This recent bill from Senator Cory Gardner provides some protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but it leaves out a big one: Insurance companies would still be able to deny insurance entirely to people who are sick.
- The ACA includes income-based subsidies to make health insurance more affordable and encourage people to sign up before they get sick. Without some mechanism like that, protections for people with pre-existing conditions would cause a premium “death spiral.
Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado: Gardner’s Health Care Proposal Won’t Get You Much Coverage, Statement from Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado
- Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner has pushed forward a weak health care proposal that would result in denial of health care coverage for Coloradans with pre-existing conditions. Gardner has voted at least 13 times to repeal, block or defund the Affordable Care Act and has not proposed a viable replacement in the almost eight years he has served in the Senate.
- Under his proposal, insurance companies could deny coverage for pre-existing conditions and wouldn’t require coverage for essential benefits like maternity care and prescription drugs. Once again, Cory Gardner is turning his back on Coloradans.
- When so many in our state and country are struggling to stay healthy during the pandemic and support themselves or their families, Sen. Gardner is asking families to take yet another financial hit while protecting insurance companies’ profits.
- Planned Parenthood fights every day for every Coloradan to have access to meaningful health care. This is an insult to everyone who is doing their best to cope in difficult times – it’s just fake policy. It’s no coincidence this was shoved forward seven weeks before the date of the election.
Sabrina Corlette, Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute:
- Big picture, this seems to me like a late-in-the-day effort to protect the senator politically, given his support for repealing the pre-existing condition protections in the ACA in 2017 as well as public opinion about the Trump administration’s current efforts to undo pre-existing condition protections at the Supreme Court.
###
