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February 22, 2017 09:50 AM UTC

Truth Test: Mike Coffman's Mythical ACA "Replacement"

  • 10 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We wrote last Friday about Rep. Mike Coffman’s so-called “listening tour,” underway this week to gain insight on the effects of the Affordable Care Act in Colorado ahead of upcoming votes to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health reform law. Coffman’s “listening tour” stood in contrast, among many other contradictions, to an ad campaign running in Colorado right now praising Coffman for a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare that they claim he already has.

Obviously, only one of these can be true!

9NEWS’ Brandon Rittiman took a critical look at this pro-Coffman ad campaign last night in a Truth Test:

CLAIM: Our healthcare system isn’t working. Mike Coffman has a plan to fix it.
VERDICT: Overstatement

Mike Coffman doesn’t have a plan to replace Obamacare, but his staff points out he “does have some very specific principles that he expects to see included in the plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.”

That is not the kind of thing you’d write if the plan was actually done…

Coffman’s office told us he wants to keep the changes Obamacare made for pre-existing conditions, the ability for parents to keep children on their plans until age 26, and maintaining coverage for people who gained it under the ACA—including the Medicaid expansion, which has been criticized by some of Coffman’s fellow Republicans.

In any case, we’ve seen some G-O-P proposals to replace Obamacare, but since they haven’t settled on one we can’t really fact check those promises yet.

Rittiman goes on to debunk most of the horror story bullet points in the ad, or at least give them some context. There’s no attempt to bridge the enormous gap between what Coffman says he wants preserved from the ACA and any GOP replacement plan that’s been publicized. In the end, the spot is fundamentally deceptive to the point of quite honestly being a waste of everyone’s time:

And that gets us to the bottom line: this ad is glossing over the fact Republicans have yet to unite behind a plan on healthcare in an effort to make you think it’s going to be awesome, no matter what plan they end up with.

Because it’s…wait for it…not “Obamacare!”

As long as you pesky reporters don’t ask any more questions, this should all work out fine.

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10 thoughts on “Truth Test: Mike Coffman’s Mythical ACA “Replacement””

  1. And of course the big con job Coffman and many other GOP congresscritters are attempting to pull off is the myth that you can just take the "good stuff" and delete the "bad stuff" a la carte.

    You break off this piece or that piece and they well know the market collapses.  

    Then the Republicans will say "we told you it would fail" and then say we'll need another 100 years to fix it.

      1. I guess they have trouble with numbers.  Here are some that they need to pay attention to:

        "As the threat of the Affordable Care Act’s repeal has moved from notional to concrete, our weekly polling has shown an uptick in the law’s popularity, and fewer voters support repealing the law,” said Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult’s co-founder and chief research officer.

        Voters are also opposed to repealing many individual aspects of the law. Of nine separate provisions of the law tested in the poll, more poll respondents want to repeal only one — the individual mandate that Americans purchase health insurance — than want to keep it.

        Other provisions are resoundingly popular. Nearly two-thirds of voters, 65 percent, want to keep prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions, including 59 percent of Republicans. Sixty-three percent want to keep allowing those younger than 26 years of age to stay on their parents’ plan, including 56 percent of Republicans.

        Voters even want to keep provisions of the law opposed by most Republicans. Only a quarter want to repeal requiring businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance, while 59 percent want to keep it. Just 28 percent want to repeal requirements that insurance companies cover birth-control medication, and 55 percent want to keep it. And one-third, 33 percent, want to repeal taxes on medical devices, while slightly more, 39 percent, want to keep those taxes in place.

          2. Let people go to the ER on the Taxpayers dime.  People getting dropped due to preexisting conditions.  Possibly dying as a result.  That's what's right for America.  And poll numbers are fickle when they don't agree with your world view.  Amirite Moldy?

          3. Well, Moddy, why do you even have health insurance? You some sort of commie wimp? (ok, that's not fair, I know as a Putin/Trump lover, you are a commie.  That just leaves wimp?)

             According to Paul Ryan, you shouldn't have to have it at all.  If you go bankrupt and/or die, well that's just your Jesus telling you your time is up, deal with it!

            Paul Ryan Makes The Simplistic Case For Obamacare Repeal: You’ll Be Free

            Maybe he means the freedom to go bankrupt and ration your own health care.

  3. Of course, we know that if the mandate is repealed, the rest of it collapses. Insurance companies can't be forced to lose money on pre-existing conditions or covering contraceptives, check-ups and all the rest of the provisions people like. 

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