Congressman Mike Coffman is on the offensive on Obamacare telling The Denver Post yesterday that “litigation, legislation — all of it is on the table” when it comes to challenging the “corrupt” deal Congress is getting on Obamacare.
Per The Denver Post‘s Allison Sherry:
“Mike Coffman thinks it is an outrage verging on scandal that, thanks to a stroke of President Obama’s pen, members of Congress have been shielded from the disaster that is Obamacare,” said the Aurora Republican’s spokesman Clay Sutton, in a statement.
Last week, Coffman told a Colorado radio station that his Congressional staffers were researching options on how to “take on” the Obama administration. It was a wide ranging answer to a question that touched on the Affordable Care Act, the Senate’s recent changes to filibuster rules and welfare reform.
Congressman Coffman has decided to ditch the federal subsidy offered to Members of Congress for their healthcare and signed up for coverage through the Colorado Obamacare exchange. What happened to his healthcare coverage under Obamacare is nothing short of shocking:
Right before Thanksgiving, Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, went to see an enrollment specialist to help him log on and enroll on the Colorado exchange.
Coffman — like a number of his Colorado colleagues, including Democratic senators and most of the GOP House members — is opting against taking the federal government subsidy next year. He instead will enroll in Colorado for health insurance.
Without the federal subsidy, his monthly premium jumps from $186 this year for a Preferred Provider Organization plan on Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to $607 next year through Rocky Mountain View.
His co-payments went up from $20 to $60, and his deductible went from $350 to $4,500.
“I thought I’d get a better deal,” Coffman said. “I thought the price and terms would be relatively the same and what I would be sacrificing is my subsidy. But the co-pays and the deductible really moved up dramatically.”
UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi’s political arm — House Majority PAC — wants to argue about Congress’ corrupt Obamacare bargain. A source tells us they just placed a web ad buy to attack Coffman for daring to stand up and fight on Obamacare. Apparently they don’t read polls over in Pelosi-land. In a recent poll, 94% of Americans oppose Congress’ bargain for themselves on Obamacare. That pretty much leaves Members of Congress and their immediate families as the only ones supporting it. If that is the debate Pelosi’s posse wants to have, Republicans just might have to oblige them.
Shutdowners get nothing.
It should be known that if one does not qualify for a taxpayer subsidy, or is unwilling to mooch off the taxpayers, they should go nowhere near any government exchange. There are private websites, brokers, or the companies themselves. In Colorado, on Amycare, for a family of three, nine out of ten plans are HMOs. HMOs limit freedom of choice and could very well limit freedom to survive.