Kelly Ayotte. Against small business insurance pools that trample on state protections...
The letter [signed by Ayotte] argues that allowing associations of small businesses to pool together to buy health insurance would harm consumers. By creating a structure that would supersede state laws, small business health plans would allow insurers to ignore state mandates in favor of "bare bones plans, subjecting consumers to reduced care and ever increasing out-of-pocket expenses," the letter warned.
..."Allowing health insurers to abandon mandated benefits, many of which are preventative and/or diagnostic, will result in an increasingly ill population and higher health care costs," they wrote. "Elimination of strong state protections in exchange for weak federal oversight fails consumers."
...before she was for it:
In an appearance in August, Ayotte said, "We need portability, the ability to come together as state businesses, across state lines, to increase our insurance pools so we can get better rates."
Of course, if her candidacy was anything more than phoned-in talking points from Mitch McConnell, maybe this patent hypocrisy wouldn't have happened.
UPDATE: Not unexpected that both Team Hodes and the DSCC pounced on this, but I was a little surprised to see the DNC get in the fray too (in part):
"Unfortunately, this tortured logic seems to be standard for the GOP these days. Ayotte and the Congressional Republicans she hopes to join in Washington know that our health care system is unsustainable, but they would rather see President Obama and the Democrats fail than come up with a real solution.
"I hope Ayotte has good health care herself, because that kind of cognitive dissonance must cause some serious headaches."
