In a political ad released this morning, U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) falsely claims that his legislation, introduced last month, will protect people with pre-existing conditions if Obamacare is repealed.
Multiple fact-checkers from multiple news outlets have analyzed Gardner’s legislation and concluded that it does not require insurance companies to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, as Obamacare does now.
One fact-checker, 9News anchor Kyle Clark, called Gardner’s bill “horse excrement.”
In his ad, Gardner appears with his mother, a cancer survivor, who looks into the camera and says, “Cory wrote the bill to guarantee coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, forever.”
Holding his mother’s hand, Gardner replies with, “No matter what happens to Obamacare.”
The ad concludes with Gardner saying, “I’m Cory Gardner, and I approve this message because some things matter more than politics.”
In fact, leading experts agree that Gardner’s election-year bill has gaping loopholes allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to anyone they don’t want to offer health insurance to, including people with pre-existing conditions.
“Big picture, [Gardner’s] bill does include some protections, but when you open up loopholes for insurance companies to avoid covering people with pre-existing conditions, they will take advantage of them,” Sabrina Corlette, who directs the Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, told the Colorado Times Recorder last month.
“Effectively, there is no protection at all,” said Corlette.
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Democrats and experts alike have attacked Gardner’s bill as an election-year stunt to try to deflect criticism that he is unconcerned about people with pre-existing conditions, as proven by his repeated votes to kill Obamacare.
Gardner’s office didn’t return a call for comment.
