ICYMI: Hickenlooper, Coloradans Call Out Cost of Living Emergency, Highlight High Cost of Gas, Health Care

Hickenlooper: “I call it the cost-of-living emergency. It’s not a crisis anymore. It’s an emergency.” White House, congressional Republicans refuse to address the affordability emergency In case you missed it, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper held two events this week highlighting how President Trump’s policies are driving the cost-of-living emergency that’s hurting Colorado families and businesses. On Monday, he met with truckers, construction and plumbing small businesses, labor unions, and rideshare drivers to discuss how the President’s tariffs, his reckless war in Iran, and the resulting spike in gas prices are squeezing workers and cutting into margins for transportation-dependent industries. On Tuesday, Hickenlooper joined patients, physicians, and hospital social workers at Denver Health – Colorado’s largest safety-net hospital – to hear how $1 trillion in Republican-backed cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act are increasing premiums, driving coverage losses, and straining hospitals and clinics across the state. As the rising cost of health care continues to put lives at risk, Hickenlooper also published an op-ed with the Sanders Institute highlighting his bill to enforce comprehensive price transparency at every level of the health care system. Check out what they’re saying: Colorado Public Radio: Patients and providers share stories of health care despair as worries mount over coverage and costs High health care costs are putting more of a burden on ordinary Coloradans and hospitals alike, fraying the state’s safety net. That’s according to a group of patients and providers who gathered at Denver Health on Tuesday to tell their stories. They met as U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper was spotlighting how more than $1 trillion in cuts by the Republican-led Congress last year are ratcheting up costs. The cuts include reductions in spending on Medicaid, the health plan for low-income Americans, and the Affordable Care Act. Patients told stories of grappling with higher premiums and losses in coverage. Denver Health physicians and other staff members said they expect to see more uninsured patients, which puts more pressure on critical services. …’Cost of Living Emergency’ …After the event, Hickenlooper expressed frustration at Congressional Republicans for the deep cuts, which he and fellow Democrats voted against, while saying he hoped they’d work together to repair the damage. “I call it the cost-of-living emergency. It’s not a crisis anymore. It’s an emergency. You just heard it,” Hickenlooper said. “This is not a small number of people that are experiencing the despair and just anger and fear and depression. I mean, these emotional states, we throw the words around, but these people (talking at the event) are living it.” He described the health challenges coming just as the economy is sputtering . The Gazette: Hickenlooper hears stories on Medicaid, health costs at Denver Health U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper went to Denver Health on Tuesday to hear how rising health care costs and federal policy changes are affecting patients. He got an earful. Hospital staff shared stories about Medicaid patients who lost eligibility — and then a limb or their life. … Hickenlooper said he hopes the stories shared Tuesday will help persuade his Republican colleagues — he needs to sway at least a dozen — of the urgency of addressing Medicaid and rising health care costs. Following the hourlong event, Hickenlooper called the state of health care in the U.S. troubling, saying “there’s a lot on the line.” “This is what I call a cost-of-living emergency,” he said. Colorado Sun: As Colorado gas prices near $4.50 per gallon, driving to work is like taking a pay cut Before Feb. 28, Kareem Sawadogo paid about $40 to fill up his tank. Now, it’s over $65, said Sawadogo, a driver for both Lyft and Uber. And if he’s driving full time, which is 40 to 60 hours a week, he must fill up daily. Combine the higher cost of gas with the rising prices of auto insurance and car maintenance, and it seems cheaper to just park his car. “If you do the math, 30 times seven, that extra is a lot of money,” said Sawadogo, who’s taken on another job — organizing for the Colorado Independent Drivers United, which estimates there are 41,000 ridesharing drivers in the state. “I cannot afford to drive right now.” … It’s just more money shelled out by consumers and small businesses , said U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, who convened the roundtable to listen to the tales of how higher prices are impacting Coloradans. “Everybody’s got to get to work and all of a sudden, they just took a pay cut because of this war,” Hickenlooper said . “This is probably the worst time you could have picked to create a confrontation that has the effect of basically locking down the world’s energy production. And it’s the first time many of us have seen in our lifetime that it affects everybody.” The Sanders Institute: Hickenlooper Op-Ed: Hidden Prices, Broken Promises: Why Health Care Transparency Is a Matter of Justice My belief that health care is a right, not a privilege, goes back to college. As a student at Wesleyan University, I met Mark Masselli and helped him found a community health center that became Community Health Center, Inc., one of the country’s leading federally qualified health centers. CHC Inc. was founded on a conviction that has never left me: no one should be denied care because of what they earn, where they live, or what they can afford to pay. That conviction guided me as governor to expand health care to 500,000 Coloradans and continues to drive my work today in the Senate. Approximately 100 million Americans carry medical debt. Health care costs have grown two to three times faster than wages this century. Families making difficult choices between care and rent are not victims of bad luck. They’re victims of a system deliberately designed to obscure what care actually costs, hide what corporations and shareholders profit, and prevent patients from ever knowing what hit them until the bill arrives weeks later. This is not dysfunction, but a strategy to juice profits with the costs falling hardest on working people. That is why we introduced the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act. This bill attacks that cynical strategy at its source. WATCH: Senator Hickenlooper Talks High Gas Prices with Rideshare Driver LISTEN: Colorado Public Radio on Hickenlooper’s Denver Health Event WATCH: CBS Denver: Denver Affordability Event WATCH: ABC Denver: Denver Affordability Event WATCH: FOX Denver: Denver Affordability Event WATCH: CW Denver, CO: Denver Affordability Event ###