DENVER -- The seven-year quest by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act passed its first test Thursday when the House approved a bill dismantling the law.
Health care advocates here in Colorado think it’s a bad idea.
“This bill would really threaten the health care of well over 600,000 Coloradans,” Adam Fox of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative told Anne Trujillo on this week’s Politics Unplugged. “That’s just in Medicaid coverage alone. That doesn’t even start to talk about the changes that would be made to private insurance coverage which we’ve heard so much about lately because it would end the guarantee of coverage for pre-existing conditions.”
Fox says the biggest change could impact 2.25 million people in Colorado who have pre-existing medical conditions.
“Right now under the ACA, no one can be denied coverage or charged more for their health insurance if they have a pre-existing condition,” Fox said. “By allowing states to waive key provisions of the Affordable Care Act insurers would again be able to charge people with pre-existing conditions more. They wouldn’t be able to flat out deny them, but they would be able to price them out of the market.”
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Politics Unplugged airs Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Denver7.
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