9NEWS: Gardner’s Health Care Lie “Is Like Telling Somebody You Are Going to Give Them an Umbrella and You Just Hand Them the Stick Part”

9NEWS: Gardner’s Health Care Lie “Is Like Telling Somebody You Are Going to Give Them an Umbrella and You Just Hand Them the Stick Part”

Despite experts & independent fact-checkers shredding Gardner’s bill that fails to protect people with pre-existing conditions, Gardner’s spox claims otherwise simply because Gardner “says” it does

Denver, CO - Last night, a 9News Truth Test took Senator Cory Gardner to task on his health care lie in his recent ad, saying that his stunt plan “is like telling somebody you are going to give them an umbrella and you just hand them the stick part.” The Truth Test comes just weeks after 9News exposed Gardner’s stunt bill as “horse excrement” and after experts continually called out the “political document” for not actually covering people with pre-existing conditions. 

Despite the Kaiser Family Foundation, the former HHS Secretary, the former CMS Administrator, MSNBC, NBC News, and a slate of experts and advocates debunking Gardner’s 117-word stunt bill for *still* allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, Gardner’s campaign argues otherwise -- essentially saying if Gardner says it, it must be true. Gardner’s only other “backup” for his bill comes from a McConnell-tied conservative dark money group.

We think Coloradans will trust real health care experts, not the guy who has been crusading to rip away our care for his entire political career.  

Over the past few weeks, Gardner and his team have refused to own up to his record of opposing protections for people with pre-existing conditions and voting at least 13 times to repeal, gut, or defund the ACA without a real plan to protect the 2.4 million Coloradans with pre-existing conditions. Gardner also supports the GOP’s lawsuit to overturn the ACA in the middle of a pandemic -- just don’t ask him about it.

Watch 9News’ Kyle Clark and Marshall Zelinger expose Gardner’s sham bill, again:

KYLE CLARK: “Politicians will use all sorts of things as shields to keep from getting criticized, wrap their ideas and patriotism or little kids or puppies are whatever. Politics guy Marshall Zelinger has to sort through that. To tell you the truth, even when it is as awkward as a truth test in an ad involving a senator's mother's medical history. We want her to enjoy good health. And we want you to know the truth.
...
MARSHALL ZELINGER:This is not true. If Obamacare were to be repealed, insurance companies would not necessarily be required to take you on in the first place...As we've told you in two previous truth tests, Gardner has a history of voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act or limit its funding requiring coverage for preexisting conditions currently exists under the Affordable Care Act.
...
CLARK:  So, Marshall, first off, God bless Cory Gardner's mom. Second, just to recap, Senator Gardner’s plan to cover preexisting conditions allows insurance companies to reject you in the first place for having a preexisting condition?

ZELINGER: It just doesn't require an insurance company to take you on in the first place.
...
CLARK : It is like telling somebody you are going to give them an umbrella and you just hand them the stick part. All right. Thank you, Marshall.

###