{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/column-coloradans-deserve-affordable-accessible-health-care", "Column: Coloradans deserve affordable, accessible health care", "2013-11-15", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "CO", "Scott Tipton", "T000470", "tipton.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Coloradans deserve affordable, accessible health care\nBy Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03)\nOver the last month, there have been lots of changed attitudes in Washington about the President\u2019s health care law. With new issues arising almost daily from the disastrous rollout, the President and Congressional Democrats can\u2019t escape the fact that the law is broken.\nBecause of this, the conversation is beginning to shift toward finding alternative solutions to the President\u2019s law that would truly bring about accessible and affordable health care for all Americans. This is an opportunity to get health care right in this country by replacing what\u2019s broken.\nI\u2019ve heard many stories from Coloradans who are running up against barriers to obtaining health insurance, including everything from website and Medicaid issues, to losing their existing plans that the President promised they could keep, and not being able to afford the increased costs under plans in the President\u2019s health care law.\u00a0\nFor many of those who have been able to get through the barriers to enroll in the exchanges, they have found that premiums are going up and deductibles and copays are sky-rocketing, especially for those in rural areas.\nA small church in Durango that has a group policy for their employees told me that under the President\u2019s health care law their premium is increasing nearly 50 percent\u2014an additional $22,000 per year for their five employees. Like many businesses, families and individuals, they simply can\u2019t afford it.\nJenifer from Monte Vista wrote my office: \u201cLast evening I went on my insurance company\u2019s website to see what my premium will be under the Affordable Health Care Act. I am in total shock. My husband and I are in very good health, we are in our late 50's, and our premiums are going from $498.00 per month to over $1100.00 per month with less coverage. What part of this is affordable?\u201d\nJenifer is exactly right\u2014this law isn\u2019t affordable nor is it making health care accessible.\nTo add insult to injury, residents in Colorado\u2019s 3rd District have noticed that the costs of their premiums can be nearly double the price of someone living in an urban area.\u00a0 Steve, a 3rd District constituent, sent us an email saying that the lowest bronze plan premium when quoted for his Cortez zip code was $1,023. When he entered a Denver zip code for the exact same plan the premium was $652. This amounts to a penalty on rural America and is blatantly unfair.\nBottom line\u2014the President\u2019s health care law was sold to Americans on false promises by the President, and by Senate and House Democrats who didn\u2019t even know what was in it before they passed it.\nNow we are seeing what\u2019s in it\u2014we\u2019re living what\u2019s in it\u2014and it is a mess.\nWe\u2019re seeing issues with accessibility\u2014especially in rural areas where the expansion of Medicaid is drastically increasing the strain on providers\u2019 limited resources, forcing them to stop seeing additional patients and effectively bringing about a rural health care crisis.\nWith premiums and deductibles sky-rocketing under the President\u2019s health care law, rural Americans being penalized with higher premium costs than those in urban areas, providers forced to turn away patients because of the colossal expansion of Medicaid, and dismal enrollment numbers falling far short of the Administration\u2019s goals, it\u2019s clear that the President\u2019s health care law is neither accessible nor affordable.\nWe have an opportunity to work together to pass an alternative solution that truly expands affordability and accessibility\u2014a patient-centered approach that allows for portability and pooling of coverage and ensures coverage of pre-existing conditions. This can be achieved through a market-driven solution that incentivizes enrollment with affordable access to quality care without forcing people to buy insurance they may not want through a mandate, enacts comprehensive tort reform to protect patients while preventing frivolous lawsuits, and rewards innovation in the health care delivery system.\nThere are plans that have been introduced in the House of Representatives that are a good start to achieving these ends, including the Empowering Patients First Act (H.R. 2300), of which I am a co-sponsor.\nThe ideas in these plans deserve a closer look, and I\u2019m hopeful they will be included in the national conversation as to how we can truly bring about affordable and accessible health care in this country.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://tipton.house.gov/press-release/column-coloradans-deserve-affordable-accessible-health-care"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.029124017804861, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}