Sen. Mark Udall (D, Colorado) tried to strong-arm CO Division of Insurance into ‘revising’ #obamacare cancellation numbers.

This is… awkward… for Senator Udall.

Executive summary: Back in the beginning of November the Colorado DoI reported that 249,199 Coloradans had received notices indicating that their insurance policies had been canceled. This apparently caused Udall’s office to flat-out freak; they started going after DoI officials to, ah, ‘revise’ those numbers. The DoI was understandably reluctant (read: “refused”) to do so, given that 249,199 Coloradans had in fact received those notices, and never mind that Mark Udall had been lying to everybody for years that if they liked their plans, they could keep their plans.  So… hijinks, as they say, ensued.  Or at least a paper trail.

Email from DoI Director of External Affairs Jo Donlin, 11/14/2013:

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.

Email from Donlin to Udall campaign, 11/15/2013, 12:55 PM:

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 a 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.

Email from Donlin, 11/15/2013, 2:28 PM:

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

Sounds like somebody over at Sen. Udall’s office – and by ‘somebody’ I mean ‘everybody’ – has a problem with objective reality.  Or perhaps just math. Certainly the Democrats in general, and the Obama administration in particular, have been persistently innumerate when it comes to estimating the costs of Obamacare.  Admittedly, that might have simply been because the Left was too eager to ram their pet project down the country’s throat before the 2010 elections to actually bother with using their heads…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: For the record: a United State Senator should not be trying to browbeat an independent state agency into providing partisan spin for his political party. I mention this on the off chance that any staffers for Democratic politicians are reading this: there seem to be curious gaps in their civic and moral education.