Naramsen Goriel: Denham is betraying his constituents with his votes on healthcare

Disappointment with Jeff Denham’s vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act is ubiquitous, but he continues to ignore constituents’ grievances while sympathetic to corporations.

Denham ignored Congressional Budget Office reports, falsely claimed he read the entire bill and that the bill was a bipartisan effort; he lied to constituents after stating he would not vote for the repeal during last April’s town hall. Specifically, the ACA helped CA-10 as the uninsured rate has gone from 16.2 percent to 6.3 percent. Additionally, 314,600 individuals in the district now have health insurance covering preventive services like cancer screenings and flu shots without any co-pays, coinsurance or deductibles stand to lose access without cost sharing.

Tens of thousands of individuals covered by ACA’s Medicare expansion now stand to lose coverage because of the reduction in the amount Medicare receives based on the House’s American Heath Care Act. Economically, the repeal would cause 3,000 jobs in health care and other industries to vanish due to a reduction in federal healthcare spending throughout the local economy. Denham continues raising red-herring concerns over doctor shortages and blaming Gov. Jerry Brown for budget problems that are irrelevant to address claims of his constituents and their grievances.

This story was originally published July 6, 2017 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Naramsen Goriel: Denham is betraying his constituents with his votes on healthcare."