Michael Bennet is a prominent and pragmatic politician who was first appointed by Bill Ritter, the Governor of Colorado, as the Senator for Colorado in 2009 to fill the vacant Senate seat left by his predecessor, Ken Salazar (The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity 2017). He was later elected to serve a six-year term in the Senate to represent the people of Colorado in 2010 as a Democrat. The senator has collaborated effectively with Democrats and also Republicans in addressing issues such as controversial health care bills. He has been very vocal in supporting health care reforms.
The stance of the Senator on health care
Bennet has held a firm stance on health care reforms. He has been a strong opponent to the reform bill introduced by the Republicans in 2016 (Warner 2017). He believed that the Americans including the residents of Colorado could not receive affordable health coverage through the proposed bill. The Republicans backed the American Health Care Act that was meant to replace the Obamacare. He opposed the bill since it would favor the affluent over the poor thus leading to inequality in healthcare provision. The bill would reduce tax levied to the rich by $600 billion (Warner 2017). The bill would have been beneficial to people who earned at least $200,000 per year. On average, the rich taxpayers would benefit from a tax reduction amounting to $200,000. Bennet was in favor to reform the Obamacare in order to make it inclusive to all Americans citizens; however, the proposed bill would be contrary to his expectations. The proposed bill would also create budget deficit countrywide.
Bennet also opposed the proposed bill since he believed that the country people would be most affected. In rural Colorado, the residents would receive health insurance from a single insurer provider thus eliminating stiff competition (Warner 2017). Lack of competition among health insurance providers in rural areas would create serious challenges for the residents.
The health insurance providers would charge exorbitant price through health insurance premiums without minding about affordability by rural residents (Warner 2017). In addition, rural residents would be charged deductibles if they visit health care providers. In essence, he has been critical about the proposed bill because health care would be unaffordable in the countryside especially for people whose age bracket falls between 40 and 50 years since they cannot be covered by Medicare (Warner 2017). He called on the legislators in the House of Representatives to repeal the proposed bill in order to scrap off the Affordable Care Act before reaching the Senate.
Michael Bennet has not been very effective in his role as the senator of Colorado especially health care reforms. In 2016, he gave an interview to Colorado Public Radio that criticized Obamacare in spite of voting in favor of “Patient Protection and Affordable Care” that became a legislation after President Barrack Obama the law in 2010 (The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity 2017). Therefore, he cannot be described as consistent in his views and policies.
Michael Benefit has played a crucial role in transforming healthcare through supporting health care reforms. He has also been very critical of bills that are not affordable to the residents of Colorado. Nevertheless, he has also been inconsistent in his views and policies by opposing bills that he initially supported.
Works Cited
The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity (2017). Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator from Colorado. Retrieved from: https://dyslexia.yale.edu/story/michael-bennet/
Warner R. (2017). Sen. Michael Bennet Slams GOP Health Care Reform Bill. Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved from: http://www.cpr.org/news/story/sen-bennet-slams-gop-health-care-reform
