A political advocacy group wants to make the failure of more than half of Obamacare’s insurance startups a pivotal issue in 2016.
Americans for Prosperity on Wednesday released an attack ad against Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet on the failure of his state’s consumer operated and oriented plan. The group, backed partly by influential GOP donors and industrialists Charles and David Koch, said that it could do more attacks on the co-op failures.
The ad says Colorado HealthOp caused more than 80,000 state residents to lose their health insurance. It also cites a Colorado NBC affiliate that reported some doctors turned away HealthOp policyholders for fear they won’t get reimbursed.
The ad then plays a video of past remarks from Bennet, who is up for re-election in 2016, saying that, as Obamacare enrollees, if you have your doctor “you should be able to keep them.”
The group didn’t disclose the exact cost of the ad buy, only saying that it cost in the five-figure range.
And it may not be done using the co-ops as an election issue.
“You will hear more from us on co-ops,” Christopher Neefus, a spokesman for the group, told the Washington Examiner Wednesday. “There is always another shoe that seems to be dropping with Obamacare.”
Political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia ranks the Colorado Senate race as “leans Democratic.” The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report also says the race leans towards Bennet.
However, Republicans are keen to try to pick off another Democratic Senate seat in the state after Cory Gardner narrowly defeated incumbent Democrat Mark Udall last year.
Four people are running for the GOP nomination so far: El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn, State Sen. Tim Neville, former Colorado Small Business Administration Director Greg Lopez and retired Air Force computer programmer Charlie Ehler.
It is not clear whether other Democratic senators will be targeted over co-op failures in their states. Of the 12 states that lost a co-op, only two have Democrats who are running for re-election in 2016: Chuck Shumer in New York and Ron Wyden in Oregon.
Rothenberg & Gonzales rank both of those seats as safe.
Colorado HealthOP was one of 23 taxpayer-funded co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act to foster greater competition on Obamacare’s marketplaces. Twelve of those co-ops have shut down due to financial problems.
Colorado HealthOp will offer coverage to its customers through the end of December. A majority of the co-ops are doing the same thing, with only New York closing up a month earlier.
Only if the policyholders don’t get a new plan in the latest open enrollment will they lose coverage.
The co-ops have become a target for conservatives who oppose the healthcare law, saying their failure is indicative of major problems with the law.
“For many, Colorado HealthOp’s closure will be the second time they’ve had their health insurance plans canceled thanks to Senator Bennet’s vote for Obamacare,” said Colorado Americans For Prosperity Director Michael Fields.
Bennet’s campaign and his Senate office did not return a request for comment Wednesday.
Republican House committees held hearings on the co-op failures last week, grilling an administration official about it.
Mandy Cohen, with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the House Ways and Means Committee the agency will use “every tool available” to recoup the $1.2 billion in funding doled out to the failed co-ops.
The administration has repeatedly said it will work to ensure consumers remain covered, and that it expected some of the co-ops to close because they were startups established in 2014.
