July 06, 2017 12:12 PM UTC

Gardner Remains Committed to Obamacare Repeal

•  
• by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Citing the case of an English child with a degenerative brain disease, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) remains committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare, and he’s “been told” the U.S. Senate has made progress toward writing viable legislation.

“And the alternative is a single-payer healthcare system, and look what happened in England, right now, with that child,” Gardner added Wednesday on KNUS 710-AM’s Dan Caplis, referring to a child who’s so sick that multiple doctors and courts have concluded–over the parents objections–the child’s best interest is served by taking him off life-support. “The parents, who no longer have the ability to determine their child’s state, because it’s in the hands of the government.”

With respect to the health-care bill, Gardner said that “you have started to see positive directions from the bill, dealing with stability of the marketplace, dealing with driving down healthcare costs. You can see that.”

Gardner said on air that he’s “been told” that “additional legislative language has been sent to the Congressional Budget Office.”

Gardner again cited rising health insurance costs as his main problem with Obamacare, but he has yet to explain how this reason for opposing Obamacare squares with nonpartisan data showing that health-insurance premiums will increase more under the Senate’s replacement bill than they would under Obamacare.

Gardner did not mention the 22 million people who’d lose health insurance nationally over 10 years under the Senate legislation, according to the CBO, including 630,000 in Colorado, according to the Colorado Health Institute.

Gardner has yet to say if there’s an upper limit to the number of Americans or Coloradans who could lose health insurance under the Senate bill–above which he’d vote against it.

Gardner also said on the radio that he opposes the suggestion of U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NB) to repeal Obamacare first and replace it later.

“I think that if you repeal it now, with nothing in its place, what happens if you don’t find that replacement?” Gardner told Caplis. “What happens if you don’t reach that agreement? And I think that we ought to move forward with an idea now, and put a solution foward to the American people.”

“Look, this is something that Republicans and Democrats ought to find common ground with, because if Democrats refuse to find a solution to a failing Obamacare, shame on them!” said Gardner.