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March 17, 2017 11:13 AM UTC

Coffman once said it was "very radical" to give health insurance to millions of people who now have it under Obamacare

  • 28 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Rep. Mike Coffman (R).

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) is making conflicting statements on whether he wants to continue to give health insurance to the 400,000 Coloradans, including 14,000 in his district, who got health insurance under Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid.

This raises the familiar question with Coffman, Where does he really stand?

If he decides to phase out the Medicaid expansion, as proposed in the GOP legislation to repeal Obamacare, Coffman would be taking a position that in line with his stance on the expansion when it was first proposed in the Affordable Care Act.

Discussing the Obamacare legislation in 2009, before it became law, Coffman called the proposed medicaid expansion “very radical.”

Coffman: “Although when you look underneath the surface, there are some very radical elements to this bill such as the expansion of Medicaid, a government run healthcare program.”

Coffman’s thinking in 2009 is in line with the Republican Obamacare replacement bill, which would phase out the expansion of Medicaid and which would eventually throw a total of 600,000 Coloradans off the insurance rolls, and is up for a U.S. House vote Thursday.

Coffman said Saturday that he’d vote for the GOP bill “in its current form.” A spokesman subsequently told 9News that Coffman was still reviewing the bill. Then Coffman told a constituents on a telephone call that he supported the GOP health bill but was concerned about the impact on Medicaid expansion.

In a March 7 radio interview, Coffman explained in more detail why he thinks the GOP healthcare bill “does a good job in terms of Medicaid expansion.” Coffman likes how the bill reforms the “entire Medicaid system” and sends it “down to the states.”

Coffman:  Okay.  So what it essentially does, is it takes those who would prospectively be eligible for the Medicaid expansion, going forward, as we phase it out, and it offers them the ability — nobody’s forced in this — to have what’s called an advanceable, refundable tax credit.  And it essentially is  — will pay for, uh, pretty – most of their premium costs.  And will push that population into the individual insurance market.  And so, I get that it is controversial, but is in fact a replacement, of sorts, for the Medicaid expansion…

Coffman:  I — well, you know, I think the bill, in my view, does a good job in terms of Medicaid expansion, from my perspective, you know, but we have to reform the entire Medicaid system, and so we can debate that on the mar–.  You know, is it a block grant, at the end of the day?  Is it some sort of capitated amount per enrollee?  But I think, at the end of the day, we’ve got to stop managing this program out of Washington DC.  We’ve got to devolve it down to the states.

Does Coffman still believe this, in light of conflicting statements in the past 10 days?

Given his position in 2009 when he was up front about his position against Obamacare, plus the fact that the majority of Coffman’s statements, including all the comments that came from his mouth as opposed to a spokesperson’s, point to his support of the GOP bill,  you’d be on solid ground in concluding that, yes, Coffman is ready to take health insurance away from Coloradans who got it under Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

Comments

28 thoughts on “Coffman once said it was “very radical” to give health insurance to millions of people who now have it under Obamacare

  1. If Coffman is such an idiot and an easy target, why can't Democrats beat him?

    Why is there no Democratic Strategist who gets paid to do this shit who can come up with a winning strategy?

    Why is CPols able to mock him endlessly on a blog but unable to do anything else about it?

    keep up the good work, guys.…

        1. if you had millions to spend in cd6, how would you spend it? That's what it comes down to. i used to think it was about better GOTV, but i don't think so anymore, given the apparent limits of GOTV as we know it. i don't know.

          1. You want to beat Coffman? Find a Democrat that will lie about their positions, and run as a Regan Democrat.

             Abortion on demand, only a Satanist could endorse that. Think about it even people of color I want to own guns for their own protection. Securing the border pure common sense. As long as you want to play the white devil card Democrats will lose in CD 6.

            CD 6 voters are on to the 30 second soundbite campaign ads.  The phonies are easily spotted.  But that didn't stop Democrats from electing Morgan Carol as their a chairperson.

                1. 'Many' will answer for many things if it's Republican Jesus™ we're face-to-face with at the Pearly Gates.  But I'm confident Republic Jesus™ is a land-locked, mythical creature that bears no resemblance to the real one that exists in the Scriptures – and he won't be impeding the traffic at Heaven's toll gate. It’s more likely he’ll be found in the furnace room shoveling coal. 

                    1. …says the anonymous troll. No confliction on my end, at least from a spiritual point of view.  I'm one of those dreaded Jesuit / Pope Francis Catholics with a sense of humor about religion.  

                       

                2. Makes sense that Putrid Pig would equate women exercising control over their own bodies with the slaughter of millions by a fascist dictatorship.  I'm actually stunned he acknowledges the Holocaust even happened at all. 

                  1. True conservatives can be really nasty people if necessary; and I'm no different. So, a message for Passionate Prune…….

                    "many will have to answer for their role in the "holocaust known as abortion."

                    I just can't take anyone seriously who uses this type of inflammatory language; thus the quotes. I'm a conservative; I believe in people having the freedom of choice in how they live their personal and private lives; I believe it can be called…… what happens between consenting adults. I contribute a little money to Planned Parenthood and even more to Americans United for Separation of Church & State.

                    And guess what, Prune, I'm not answering to anybody for what I do, especially far right wing religious fundies who want to impose their religious ideology on all citizens. If you don't like that, Prune, tough shitsky.

                    1. It's interesting that you have to preface your remarks with "I'm a conservative". Not sure why you need to keep reminding the Pols, or where you donate money. What's the point?

                      You are correct, you don't have to answer to "anybody", GOD is not "anybody". I know that makes you and other Democrats mad, it gets in the way of, "it's all about me".

                      Make no mistake, you will answer. And when you do be sure to mention you are a conservative.

                    2. The one that just happens to hate all the same people Pear hates.  Who'd have thunk? 

                       

          1. Pear/Prune: there is no reply button on your latest diatribe about people "having to answer," so will reply here. Perhaps you should focus on your own "heavenly future" instead of trying to project your religious views onto other people. Regarding announcing that I am indeed a conservative, that's to differentiate myself from fake conservatives like yourself, Moddy, and probably A.C. . As for the so-called "holocaust of abortion," perhaps you could reflect on the comment about abortion made by the primary founder of the modern conservative movement in the US, the late Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ): "it's not a conservative issue; it's a matter between a woman and her doctor." It’s hard to get any more bedrock conservative than a statement like that. For the apparent clueless like yourself, it means mind your own business and stay out of other peoples’ private lives.

            1. Keep announcing that you are a conservative. You have sold it to the Pols well enough. 

              Terminating life is not a conservative issue?  Perhaps you should drop the conservative  designation and  identify yourself as a libertarian. At least that would be more consistent with the views that you express.

              Re-register with the Pols as "Libertarian Head Banger".

            2. I remember when Jerry Fallwell started questioning Sandra Day O'Connor conservative credentials when Reagan nominated her to the Supreme Court. Barry Goldwater said that Fallwell needed a swift kick in the ass.

              Ahh, where have the real conservatives – who want government out of their wallets and out of their bedrooms (C.H.B. being one of the rare exceptions) – gone…..

              1. Falwell's bad seed didn't fall too far from the tree…

                This is essentially his admission that yes, Trump could be a sexual predator and Falwell wouldn’t withdraw his support because SCOTUS.

                I’ll leave the ridiculousness of believing a sexual predator’s judgment can be trusted on supreme court nominations for another column. The real offense here is that Falwell is using the influence of the foremost Christian university in America to declare that the Christian obligation is to ignore the character of who we are voting for to lead the country.

    1. If Coffman is such an idiot and an easy target, why can't Democrats beat him?

      95% of incumbents who run in the general election are re-elected. Coffman apparently hasn't fallen to the status of the lowest 5% yet.

  2. Run against the two-faced double talker

    Whoever runs against Coffman in 2018 must paint him as ineffective, as a mealy-mouthed two-faced untrustworthy representative of their interests.

    This won't be difficult, as healthcare and immigration are likely to be a bloody mess in CD6 in 2018, and Contradictory Coffman will have contradicted himself at least twice on these issues, again, by 2018.

    The GOP won't have the votes nor the will to fully repeal the ACA, but they will still be chipping away at it, and people's access to healthcare will be eroding daily.

    The ICE detention centers in Aurora will be packed full of enslaved people, many of whom have citizen extended family members voting in CD6.

    The VA hospital likely won't be finished in 2018– they still have to figure out how to pay for their psychiatric building, even though they cut plans for a PTSD facility. 

    Then they have to staff it, a task made increasingly difficult by Coffman's anti-VA employee, "heads must roll" schtick. Coffman can't continue to rail against the GAO report on the VA hospital fiasco, while simultaneously ignoring its recommendations.  Senator Bennet, of all people, has been pushing Congress to follow the GAO recommendations to get the hospital open and staffed.

    I think that CD6 voters are tired of Coffman's whiny blaming messages on the VA, and ready for some positive action.  The ads should show Coffman's contradictions.

    And then, for chrissake, have a  Spanish language media strategy for the Democrat. Coffman had lying shit all over Spanish radio painting him as the immigrant's friend and lying about Morgan Carroll's record.

    1. Before Mikey votes on Thursday (assuming Paul Ryan doesn't pull the bill), he should phone Betsy Markey and John Salazar, and ask them what happened when they ignored all those rabid people at the town hall meetings and voted for the A.C.A.

  3. I don't buy into the "enslaved" line; that's plaintiff attorney rhetoric. However, the fact that they got Judge Kane to certify a class is meaningful indeed. Kane is historically pretty much to the point and no-nonsense in his legal work. Will make for an interesting outcome.

    1. Slavery in the ICE detention center.

      So keep in mind that people in the ICE detention centers are not felons; they are not like state prisoners, who must work as part of their sentence. Penal labor is allowed under the 13th Amendment as punishment for those convicted of a crime.  The only crime most immigrants are guilty of is the misdemeanor of "improper entry" or "unlawful presence", i.e., being in the country illegally.

      They are being held in the detention centers without being charged with a crime, for the most part. If they are in fact Federal prisoners of the US Government, they must be paid minimum wage ($9 hr) for their work. Calling it "volunteer labor" does not make it comply with Federal law.

      State, County, and Federal prisons are apparently a mishmash of conflicting laws; however, most pay inmates little to nothing for labor. Prison labor pads the profits of at least 50 companies you probably do business with.  Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) doesn't really buy that fancy tilapia and goat cheese from bucolic little family farms.

      So when detainees are forced to work under threat of solitary confinement, without being charged with a crime, that is unconstitutional. It is a sin and a shame. And I – and many others – call it slavery.

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