DENVER – A “heated” exchange of emails between staff members for U.S. Sen. Mark Udall and the state insurance commission was only a routine conversation about how to describe health-insurance plans that were canceled or changed, the state’s insurance commissioner said at her confirmation hearing Monday.
Marguerite Salazar won easy confirmation by a state Senate committee Monday despite the controversy that appeared to pit her office against Udall.
Salazar’s office reported late last year that nearly 250,000 Coloradans had their insurance policies canceled. Critics of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act seized on the number to show the national health-care law was making life worse for thousands of people.
But Udall, D-Colo., disputed the state’s numbers, and said the vast majority of people with canceled plans were given a chance to buy into a similar plan from their current insurance company.
Salazar confirmed Monday that 96 percent of the people who received cancellation notices also got an option to continue coverage with the same insurance company. It was her choice to use the term “cancellation,” which Udall’s office disputed, Salazar said Monday at the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee.
“We saw this as cancellations. They saw it as an option to renew with a cancellation,” Salazar said.
Complete Colorado, a conservative blog, published emails last week that showed Udall’s staff members asking employees of the state insurance division to clarify that nowhere near 250,000 Coloradans were losing their insurance.
In the emails, Jo Donlin, director of external affairs for the insurance division, tells Salazar that Udall’s staff members are questioning her agency’s numbers.
“Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong. Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They want to trash our numbers. I’m holding strong while we get more details,” Donlin wrote.
Republicans on the Senate committee praised Salazar for standing up for Donlin.
“I just want to thank you for standing behind her when she was criticized in this whole incident with Sen. Udall’s office,” said Sen. David Balmer, R-Centennial.
But Salazar said the emails were no big deal.
“I characterize this as a heated discussion between two staff people that happens all the time,” she said.
Udall’s research helped her agency figure out what was going on in the state’s insurance market, she said.
“Those kind of inquiries make us stronger, I believe,” Salazar said.
The Senate panel voted 7-0 to confirm Salazar, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. She still faces a vote by the full Senate, which is likely to be a formality after Monday’s unanimous show of support.
Salazar, of Alamosa, was the president of Valley-Wide Health Systems Inc., the provider that pulled out of the Durango market in 2007.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
