DENVER – Republicans tried to repeal Colorado’s health-insurance exchange Tuesday, but it was one of their own who was really on the hot seat.
Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, sponsored the 2011 bill to create Connect for Health Colorado, the online marketplace where Coloradans can buy health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act.
Stephens is running for U.S. Senate, and her opponents use her sponsorship of the bill to tie her to “Obamacare.”
Instead of being on the defensive, however, Stephens peppered the sponsor of the repeal bill, Rep. Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, with questions that Joshi had a hard time answering.
“I’m not quite sure I understand your strategy once this gets repealed because we still have Obamacare federally,” Stephens said.
She left the hearing early to prepare for a debate, and chairwoman Rep. Diane Primavera, D-Broomfield, delayed a vote on the bill until a later day so Stephens could be there.
In 2011, Stephens argued that it was better for Colorado to set up its own insurance exchange because otherwise it would have to participate in the federal exchange.
As of this month, nearly 80,000 people had bought private insurance policies through the exchange. An additional 128,000 had qualified for Medicaid. Together, those numbers account for about a quarter of Colorado’s uninsured population.
The federal government is paying all of the costs for the extra people on Medicaid for the first few years, which Joshi said is irresponsible.
“We already know that Washington, D.C., doesn’t have any money because we just increased the debt limit to over $17 trillion,” he said.
But Democrats quizzed Joshi about whether the state would have to pay back $177 million in federal grants it got to set up the exchange. Primavera also wondered what the exchange’s 80,000 customers would do.
“That’s my concern, is what would happen to these people should your bill pass,” Primavera said.
Talk-show host Ken Clark testified in defense of Joshi.
“Sometimes you gotta put a tourniquet around the thing, and you’re going to lose a foot to save the body. Now is the time to lose the foot,” Clark said.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
