DENVER — Sen. Michael Bennet on Tuesday warned the deal to end the nation’s longest government shutdown could create a “perfect storm” for rural health care in Colorado. But other voices — including fellow Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, a conservative commentator, and a political analyst — offered different takes on the compromise that could reopen the government without restoring Affordable Care Act tax credits.
The Senate voted late Monday to reopen federal agencies without extending the ACA subsidies Democrats had been seeking. Bennet told Denver7 Tuesday the decision, combined with recent Medicaid cuts, will hit rural communities the hardest.
“So this is the perfect storm," Bennet said. "It is a one-two punch that is going to be particularly devastating to rural parts of Colorado and rural parts of this country.”
Bennet also warned about steep premium hikes.
“Almost 300,000 Coloradans face the real possibility of their premiums doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling next year. That’s obviously devastating for families. It’s devastating for the 23 million Americans that are in the same boat,” Bennet said.
When asked about a fallback plan for those Coloradans facing higher premiums, Bennet replied: “There really isn’t one. It’s a tragedy, and it’s a completely predictable tragedy, but Trump Republicans as well — [who] have been uniformly and resolutely opposed to doing anything to lift a finger to try to make people’s lives better.”
While Bennet called the outcome a "predictable setback", Hickenlooper defended ending the shutdown, citing hunger threats from the White House.
“Forty-two million people were being threatened with losing their SNAP benefits, right? That was being threatened by someone who carries out on their threats. It was being threatened to be taken away from them as long as this went on. That’s crazy. You shouldn’t hold the American people hostage and threaten them with hunger and starvation," said Hickenlooper.
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Philip Chen, associate professor of political science at the University of Denver, said the episode highlights Republican control in Washington.
“Republicans do hold almost all the levers of power in Washington. They hold the Senate, they hold the House, hold the presidency, and they have a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. So Republicans have a lot of power," said Chen. "A shutdown of the federal government isn’t necessarily as problematic to Republicans as it would be to Democrats, because it allows for less influence of the federal government, less power for the federal government.”
Chen also noted, “So did eight Democratic senators maybe squander the opportunity? Possibly, but it’s also still not clear that Republicans were ever really that interested or engaged in discussions or negotiations about things like the healthcare subsidies.”
Conservative radio host Jeff Hunt praised the compromise and warned against government-run health care.
“Stop trusting the government," said Hunt. "To me, it’s this wild situation where we’re recognizing the incompetency of government and then also at the same time, entrusting them to provide for us. So move away from the government. Stop entrusting the government to provide all these services, and let the free market provide better care at a cheaper cost.”
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Hunt also stated that he does not believe Republicans will compromise on healthcare subsidies.
"This was part of the fatal flaw with Obamacare all along, was that it required massive subsidies in order to keep it affordable. This is why no Republicans supported Obamacare when it originally passed. So no, I don’t think you’re going to see Republicans give on this,” he said.
Bennet told Denver7 Democrats will draft a bill before the December vote to try to gain bipartisan support, but warned that failure would leave thousands facing soaring premiums and possibly trigger another shutdown in January.
