Democrat Senator pressured state to alter ObamaCare numbers

According to the Colorado Division of Insurance, 249,199 Coloradans had their policies cancelled as a result of ObamaCare. At least, that was the number released back on November 6th of last year. At the time, the "If you like your plan you can keep it" story had just exploded, and Dems started doing everything they could to squash unpleasant data. Today, Breitbart and Complete Colorado are reporting that emails have surfaced which show Colorado's Senior Democrat Senator, Mark Udall, pressured the state to revise their numbers to make them appear less damning.

In one email, Udall's chief of staff leans heavily on the bogus "transitioned to new policies" argument to claim that the number of actual cancellations is much lower.

"We spoke with the insurers and the 249k # is actually 73k (at most) if you don't count those that were given the option of renewing through 2014. Between Anthem/Kaiser only 13k pure cancellation notices went out. We'll be putting out a release this morning, but would again prefer that it be in coordination with you. Let us know what you have identified here and prefer."

First of all, 73k still means that the President lied when he said you could keep your plan. More importantly, no matter how you slice it, the full 249,199 lost the plan they originally had. Just because they "transitioned" to a new policy doesn't mean that their old one wasn't cancelled.

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According to the Senator's office, the Colorado Division of Insurance needed to alter its number quickly, or the Senator would start fighting the numbers on his own:

"We need to move on this ASAP - or we'll be forced to challenge the 249k number on ourselves. It is wildly off, or at least very misleading and reporters keep repeating it."

Sorry guys, but if it's not actually "wildly off" then it isn’t' "very misleading." The fact is that these people had their policies dumped in a direct contradiction to the President's promise. Udall's carping can't change that - something the state pointed out, when it refused to back down.

You may have already put out your press release, but I wanted to get back to you. First, thank you for letting us know the press release is going out today. Our number of 249,199 reflects the people affected by cancellation notices based on data provided by the carriers. You are correct that Coloradans affected by these cancellations were provided options and some of them chose early renewals. However, the early renewals were one option presented along with the options to purchase a different plan from the same carrier or purchase a plan from different carrier, both inside or outside Connect for Health Colorado. We required carriers to provide all these options as part of their cancellation notices. Also, many people affected by the cancellation notices have not chosen an early renewal. We continue to collect additional data and the numbers continue to change as people find the health insurance options they need. We are also evaluating the President's announcement to see how it may or may not change the Colorado health insurance market landscape. We will keep you abreast of any further developments as we continue through the open enrollment period. Thanks for staying in touch.

Ouch. In case you missed it, that "thanks for staying in touch" sounds like a big middle finger to the Senator. Maybe that's because the emails show that the people at the Division of Insurance were receiving threatening phone calls from the Senator's goons:

Following my e-mail, I received a very hostile phone call from Sen. Udall’s deputy chief of staff.

What's most interesting about all of this is that the Udall team's first email was sent over a week after the cancellation numbers were released. Specifically, the pressure started the day after President Obama announced that he'd waved his hand and allowed people to keep their cancelled plans for an extra year. Before that, no one bothered to challenge the data. So, it would appear that the Senator's office accepted that there were 249k cancellations right up until the moment Obama unilaterally changed the rules. It's a cheap tactic, and it relies more on the definition of "cancelled" than it does on any kind of logical reality. Colorado Division of Insurance Director of External Affairs Jo Donlin made this point in another email, which she sent to colleagues.

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.

Udall is currently struggling for his political life. Recent polling suggests a 47% plurality of voters do not feel he deserves another term, and these emails are unlikely to help. Nor will his longstanding support of President's wildly unpopular "signature law." As Breitbart's John Nolte points out: "At the very least, the emails show that Udall's office was pouring its energies into spinning bad news instead of using that energy to bring some relief to hundreds of thousands of constituents victimized by the ObamaCare boondoggle for which Udall voted." Hey, there's no point in wasting time solving the problem when you can just fight the spin-war in the media, right?