Colorado Congressman Finds Obamacare Cancellation Number Higher Than Reported

A Colorado Republican has been notified by his state’s insurance commissioner that the number of residents who have received cancellation notices due to Obamacare is far more than previously reported.

Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) wrote Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar last week to get an accurate count of those who had lost their coverage. Until he received a response on Tuesday, the department was still reporting just under 250,000 had received cancellation notices.

That figure, though, was from Nov. 6: 106,083 people with individual coverage who lost insurance and 143,116 in small group coverage.

Salazar explained in the letter how they were trying to tabulate the data, weighing “a more consistent interpretation of ‘cancellation,'” reaching out to insurance carriers and trying to distinguish which cancellations had been offered a renewal option.

“As of January 13, 2014, carriers reported 335,484 people with individual or small group coverage were affected by cancellation notices,” the letter eventually stated.

“Tens of thousands more Coloradans than previously reported have received notices that their healthcare plans will be cancelled. Some have resorted to playing a numbers game, acting as if a renewal option that some received with their cancellation notices makes the situation better. This law was passed on the premise that individuals would not have to worry year to year whether or not they could renew the plan they had and liked,” Gardner said after receiving Salazar’s response.

“How long will these individuals be able to keep their renewed plans for? President Obama and those who vouched for his law have explaining to do, their promise was ‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,'” he added.

“It is imperative that the federal and state agencies monitoring and implementing Obamacare are forthright with the information they have gathered. Too much of what I have learned about the rollout of this law has come from letters, hours of committee hearings and news reports.”