CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
January 05, 2017 01:31 PM UTC
7 Comments
You should include a phone number or email contact for Gardner for those of us who can't attend the rallies. You didn't, so here it is.
Email/ contact Senator Gardner
Office locations with phone numbers
A few of these: Greeley:(970) 352-5546 Grand Junction (970) 245-9553 Pueblo: (719) 543-1324 Denver (303) 391-5777
As I understand, certain individuals receive a Federal subsidy based on income to pay part of the ACÁ insurance premium. Each plan comes with deductible and co-pay. I've read that deductibles range from $4000 on up. If an individual does not have the resources to pay a full premium how will he have the resources to pay the deductible?
True story. I had an employee who was covered through ACÁ. The employees wife suffered a gallbladder attack. She went to her Dr. who told her she needed to have it removed. The Dr. required one half of the deductible paid up front before he would schedule surgery. Of course the employee did not have the funds required by the Dr. The Dr's office told the employee that if his wife were to be admitted to the ER they could do the surgery without the up front deductible payment. So my employee tells me they planned to induce a gallbladder attack by eating food to aggravate the condition to get her into the ER. I was horrified that they would even think of such an idea.
Health care is unaffordable for most Americans even with subsidies. People are only covered until they get sick and need hospital care because of high deductibles and that is not health care. ACÁ does not work for the people it was intended to help. Wanting something better that works is not a crime.
I'm pretty sure your "true story" is total BS. ACA no longer allows HDHP (high deductible health plans) because they don't meet the actuarial value test (60% medical cost coverage) and require too much out of pocket expense.
If the story is true, it's a junk "high deductible" plan. As the employer (you did say this was the wife of your employee), you would probably be the one who made that junk insurance health plan the only one available to your employees.
Shame on you.
You say you "want something better that works". How is that working out for you? Ya think Cory Gardner has your interests (or those of your mythical employees) at heart? Do you think that there will be a "replacement" for the ACA without the taxpayer having to fund another huge bailout of insurance companies? As a true financial conservative, you'd be against that, right?
"Pretty sure"? But not totally sure? Are you pretty sure about the ACA plans offered in Weinert TX. Are you pretty sure the employee can cover the deductible?
What you are sure of is that ACA is wonderful plan crafted by caring Democrats and by default is free of defects. Anyone who says different is distorting the facts because they want America to be sick again.
Texas is one of the states which decided not to open its own health insurance exchange, and not to expand Medicare. Accordingly, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country, although still lower than before the ACA was passed. 1.8 million Texans bought insurance through the ACA.
No subsidies for your employee? Blame Texas' GOP legislature. That sad story of your employee's wife's gall bladder, if it is true, would have been repeated across the Lone Star state. You, as a Colorado small business person, could have gotten tax credits for offering a better plan to your employee through the Colorado Exchange, or your employee could have gotten a subsidy. Then, needed surgery would have been a higher priority than paying the deductible up front.
What would have made the most sense when the ACA was being drafted, when Democrats held both houses and the Presidency, was to expand Medicaid into "Medicare for All". A public option, single-payer plan would have been simpler and more effective, putting the USA on a par with other industrialized countries of the world. Yes, millions of people would eventually have had to move from private to public insurance jobs and plans, but that would have happened in a controlled way, over time.
But thanks to Joe Lieberman and other Blue Dog Dems bought off by the insurance industry, the public option never had a real chance. Bernie Sanders brought it up again, and it was part of his popularity. HRC even came around to it eventually, driven by that popularity and seeing the writing on the wall.
Single payer will not happen under a Trump administration. Perhaps, in the chaos after Trump is impeached, the "replace the ACA" options will have some vestige of caring and sanity.
No, I certainly never said the ACA was perfect. It still allows for significant insurance rate increases and profiteering, still allows carriers to cherry pick which markets they will enter, still allows the drug industry to make obscene profits from needed medicine. I, along with millions, prefer the Medicare for All option.
But I'm still pretty sure not much of your story is true. You are a liar, and this is probably just more of the "death panel" horror story nonsense that was put out about Obamacare in the run-up to implementation.
I employee people in different states. I do not provide employee healthcare. I pay my employees a flat salary starting ar $1050 per week. Out of that the employee makes their own decisions with their discretionary income.
I surveyed my team to see what they were spending on healthcare to see if a group policy might offer a savings. For a small business with 6 employees, the insurance carriers were not real excited. Of course those that did quote want all employees to receive coverage. The employees who were with ACA and received a subsidy paid less premium. Some were covered by the spouses insurance. So the result was I did not offer a plan.
Historically monopolies have had a negative impact. Why do you think a government monopoly on healthcare would be beneficial?
So that was your employee's decision to buy a high deductible plan. Given that he was a Texan, that was probably the only option he had.
Most other industrialized countries which have universal health care have better health outcomes, with lower costs, than the USA. From that lefty propaganda sheet, Forbes: