Buck’s bill is in “direct response” to the passage of the waiver.
“Instead of using the Section 1332 waivers as originally intended, to give states the flexibility to implement innovative health care solutions, Democrats are using the waiver program to make federally funded health insurance for aliens a reality illegal,” Buck said in a statement. “This is a slap in the face to American taxpayers who get up, go to work and are struggling to survive amid 9.1% inflation.
Buck’s office did not make him available for an interview in time for this story.
Polis and immigrant health experts say bills like Buck’s simply increase costs in the long run
A spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis said Buck’s bill would raise insurance costs for Coloradans.
“The Colorado Option will save Coloradans between 3-19 percent on health care at a time when people need more money in their pockets and expand access to quality care — especially in rural Colorado,” said Conor Cahill, Polis press secretary. “This misguided federal bill is simply reckless, and it’s disappointing to see Colorado’s representative trying to block Coloradans from saving money when he should be doing everything in his power to protect our state.”
While states are generally barred from using federal funds to pay for health coverage for undocumented people, some have found workarounds, said Drishti Pillai, director of immigrant health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focused on health issues.
For example, California was able to recover federal funds that would have been provided for emergency spending when it expanded health insurance to undocumented young adults.
Not giving undocumented people access to purchase health insurance, she said, results in “unreimbursed costs of care because at that point an individual will either go without needed care or have to show up in an emergency room… so it leads to higher costs in the long run.”
Through the Section 1332 waiver, Colorado will receive approximately $135 million in federal funds to expand access to health insurance, including expanding subsidies to cover premiums.
“For me, health care remains a basic human right”
One of the sponsors of the Colorado Option law, Democratic State Rep. Iman Jodeh, said the goal of the Colorado Option is to provide health care to Colorado residents regardless of their legal status. She is not surprised by Buck’s bill.
“Passing a law like this at the federal level would just open the door to a cascading event of really bad policies that would affect health care and insurance in Colorado,” she said.
She described Colorado’s option as “model legislation” and said Buck’s law is based on a minority of the “radical right” and not a reflection of what Americans want to see for the country.
“To me, health care remains a basic human right and it should never be decided based on the color of your skin, your zip code and certainly not your residency status,” she said.
This is not the first time Buck has interfered with state policy on services for the undocumented population.
He reintroduced a bill this Congress, of which Lamborn is also a co-sponsor, that would freeze some federal grants to states that issue driver’s licenses to undocumented individuals like Colorado.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are about 162,000 undocumented people in Colorado, with about 59 percent uninsured.
The state has made one the number of moves in recent years to help unauthorized residents access health care.
