Complete Colorado released emails today that reveal Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-CO) office attempted to pressure state officials to change official statistics about health insurance policy cancellations as a result of ObamaCare.
Udall’s staff, evidently unhappy or worried about the political backlash resulting from the nearly 250,000 Coloradans receiving notices that their health insurance plan would be canceled, mounted an intense effort to have officials from the Colorado Division of Insurance (CDI) revise their numbers.
But CDI officials pushed back against the Udall staff’s attempts to “trash” their numbers. CDI official Jo Donlin’s email makes clear that the agency would not stand for Udall’s browbeating tactics.
“Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong. Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They want to trash our numbers. I’m holding strong while we get more details. Many have already done early renewals. Regardless, they received cancellation notices.”
Donlin’s response on standing by her agency’s numbers did not bode well with Udall’s office, resulting in a “very hostile phone call from Udall’s deputy chief of staff.”
“Following my e-mail, I received a very hostile phone call from Udall’s deputy chief of staff. [Insurance Commissioner] Marguerite [Salazar] is on the phone with [Udall’s] chief of staff right now. Happy Friday!”
Udall’s staff seemed very concerned about the political fallout from the news of insurance cancellations, as evident by this e-mail from a Udall staffer.
“We need to move on this ASAP – or we’ll be forced to challenge the 249K number ourselves. It is wildly off or at least very misleading and reporters keep repeating it.”
Udall and his staff should be worried about the political fallout of ObamaCare. After all, Udall promised Coloradoans that if they liked their plan, they could keep it. Apparently Udall is so worried about it for 2014 that he’s willing to have his staff badger state officials to change statistics.