As a physician concerned about patients’ ongoing ability to access their needed health care, I’ve been following recent budget proposals from our elected officials and how they could impact coverage. Unfortunately, I’m quite alarmed by a proposal some of Colorado’s members of Congress are supporting.
The Republican Study Committee is currently advocating for a budget that would put people’s health care in serious danger, including raising costs and making health care simply more difficult to access. Members of this committee include Colorado’s own Rep. Lauren Boebert, and Rep. Doug Lamborn. Neither they, nor any Colorado member of Congress, should support cuts to health care. Doctors like me encourage them to instead support efforts to make healthcare more available and more affordable.
To date, the Affordable Care Act has saved Coloradans an average of $800 a year on insurance premiums. In addition, Medicaid expansion under the ACA meant 600,000 Coloradans who would otherwise not have any health care coverage now have it, bringing the total of low-income, hardworking Coloradans with health care to more than 1.5 million. Furthermore, the Inflation Reduction Act, which builds on the ACA, caps insulin at $35 a month per prescription and, starting next year, out-of-pocket prescription costs per year for older Coloradans. Medicare is also now negotiating lower drug costs, thanks to the IRA.