In case you missed it, today the Colorado Sun published an op-ed from John Hickenlooper on his plan to stop Washington’s attacks on our health care and expand coverage and lower costs for Coloradans. John’s plan builds on the Affordable Care Act to lower costs, address sky-high prescription drug prices, and rise to the challenges we face during a pandemic.
As Governor, John expanded health care to an additional half a million Coloradans and got Colorado to near-universal coverage. Despite the ACA’s success, Republicans in Washington like Senator Cory Gardner have voted multiple times to repeal it and even now support a lawsuit to overturn it which could leave millions of Coloradans with pre-existing conditions without coverage.
Hickenlooper wrote:
When I was governor, we expanded health care to half a million Coloradans and cut our uninsured rate by nearly two-thirds. But instead of building on our work and continuing to expand access to health care, today Washington Republicans are trying to take it away.
Sen. Cory Gardner has spent his career in Washington working to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
And now he and President Trump are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the law, and with it, protections for 2.4 million Coloradans with pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, asthma and hyper-tension. Sen. Gardner won’t answer questions on that lawsuit, and he doesn’t have a sufficient plan to address our health care crisis — but we do.
We believe health care is a right, not a privilege. No matter where you live, who you are or how much you earn, you deserve quality, affordable health care. As a nation, we have repeatedly fallen short of this aspiration.
The toll of the coronavirus is not to be underestimated. It is straining our health care system and institutions to their breaking point. But it has also reminded us that we are all in this together. We should not miss this opportunity to rebuild the system stronger and more resilient than it was before.
