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Vail Daily letter: Time for change

In his March 6 Vail Daily commentary, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis declared, “The Division of Insurance’s delay in addressing the high costs of premiums in Ratings Area 11 prevent my constituents and many other middle-class families from taking advantage of the ‘opportunities’ provided by the Affordable Care Act to secure an affordable and quality insurance plan for themselves and their families” (quotes added for “opportunities”). Mind you, Area 11 includes Western Slope and rural communities of modest populations such as Eagle County. I had to read this concession twice to see if I got it right.

This is the first occasion that I have discerned that any Democratic politico in our area has admitted that the ACA has a problem; ergo, that it did not address the geographic and demographic differences in its population pool (“one size fits all”). Is Polis calling upon the state of Colorado to fix this “ridiculous cost of health insurance” as he put it, or is he asking for another dubious and illegal executive order from Mr. Obama to legislatively amend the Affordable Care Act to do it? Didn’t Mr. Obama state that premiums would decrease on average by $2,500 per annum? Polis is silent on this misrepresentation, yet admits that for us folks here at home, the premiums we are forced to pay are “ridiculously high.”

Mr. Polis, like all of his Democratic colleagues, both state and federal, e.g., Udall, Bush, Hammer, Hickenlooper, etc., have remained silent about all of his administration’s misrepresentations and deceptive statements regarding the Affordable Care Act — from its genesis in Congress, Obama’s White House desk, during “fix-it and excuse time” to now. The silent condoning of Obama’s blatant misrepresentations regarding the Affordable Care Act’s touted “opportunities” by the Democrats in Colorado (state and federal) is telling and deafening. “You can keep your existing policy of insurance, period”! “You can keep your doctor, period”! “Your premiums will decrease on average by $2,500 per year, period”! These are the deceptions that Polis avoids or chooses to ignore for political reasons at this election time.



Polis and his fellow Democrats (including Obama) are the authors, defrauding promoters and hustlers of this legislative travesty in the first place. Yet Polis still disingenuously touts its “opportunities” such as lower premiums and maintaining previous policies and doctors. Polis, like his Colorado ilk, is still perpetuating the lies, the miseries, and the economic devastation that has befallen us, and yet they (Polis et al) still ask us for more of the same come election time. When you recognize the wreckage caused by the Affordable Care Act (like Polis has), but tacitly deny culpability and causation, that alone is dishonesty. In this instance, silence about the past misdeeds is grounds for “changing the guard” en masse (both state and federal) this coming November.

Fredric Butler


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