Real Bipartisanship Begins at Home, Governor
Statehouse
The letter*, signed by Grantham and three other Senators, includes the following 7 questions for Hickenlooper, which they intend to get answers to one way or another.
"1. Why do the proposals not offer any solutions for reining in the rapid growth of Medicaid as the default option for millions of people seeking insurance coverage, when 82 percent of new coverage purchased through the
2. The governors' seven-page plan is silent on how to attack the cost drivers for rapidly increasing health care costs, the major underlying problem facing all health care consumers.
3. The governors' plan is silent on how to rein in the escalating premiums and cost of deductibles in plans offered on the state exchange, with a 2017-2018 increase in premiums for individuals plans expected to average 26.9 percent statewide.
4. The governors' plan offers no specific recommendation for modifying the onerous burdens in current law placed on small employer plans. Does
5. The plan offers only a mention and no concrete proposals for modifying the current ACA mandate on "essential benefits," with no endorsement of offering states additional options for crafting benefit plans that meet the needs of each state's citizens instead of a mandate for uniform plans across 50 diverse states.
6. What new incentives can be devised for persuading younger and healthier people to purchase insurance without the onerous, punitive and largely unsuccessful "individual mandate" in current law?
7. The plan makes vague references to allowing more state-level flexibility through innovation waivers, but it is woefully short on concrete proposals. The plan appears fixated on holding states harmless against potential federal funding reductions, but it offers no suggestions for how states can control their own escalating health care expenditures."
Grantham said he has a hard time understanding how the governor can continue to tout his plan in the state and national media as "bipartisan" when only 2 of 34 Republican governors had signed it (as of last week) and
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