Dear Sen. Gardner, As a Coloradan living with multiple sclerosis, I have a unique reason to urge you to oppose the Graham-Cassidy health care bill: TABOR. This bill proposes drastic changes to Medicaid funding, which would be disastrous to the 400,000 Coloradans who now have health insurance thanks to Medicaid expansion.
If funding is cut, Colorado will have to either eliminate access to Medicaid or figure out how to pay for it ourselves. The legislature already had to decide between closing rural hospitals and reclassifying the Hospital Provider Fee just to balance the budget due to TABOR.
Colorado’s state budget may never recover if you vote to eliminate federal Medicaid expansion dollars. The 1 in 4 Coloradans living with chronic disease is depending on you to keep our well-being foremost in your thinking and your vote.
Brandt Wilkins
Denver
