Governor Jared Polis vetoed a number of bills that were passed by his state's legislature, and one veto in particular has been raising some eyebrows. Here's the scoop. Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, has vetoed a bill banning surprise billing [00:00:16] by ambulance companies. The bill passed the Colorado legislature by unanimous votes in both chambers, so the bill was called House Bill 1088. It would have limited how much ambulances can charge for transporting patients, [00:00:32] and it would have also required health insurance companies to cover the cost of ambulance rides. Again, this passed unanimously in both of the state houses of the state Congress, and the Democratic governor vetoed it. David Sirota, founder of The Lever and co-writer of the movie Don't Look Up, [00:00:48] had a very blunt take on the veto. He said, it's very interesting that high profile Democratic leaders publicly defend stuff like surprise ambulance bills, and then they somehow wonder why so many people hate the Democratic Party. [00:01:04] But in the spirit of fairness, here is what Polis had to say to justify his veto. This is from his veto letter. He said, I recognize that balance bills, also known as surprise bills, can be devastating to Coloradans personal finances, [00:01:19] and HB 25 1088 would help ensure people don't hesitate to call 911, and I support that component of the bill. I also understand that setting a rate for out of network services provides predictability for smaller rural providers. [00:01:36] The aims of HB 2005 1088 are commendable. However, those cost savings are outweighed, in my view, by the premium increases driven by this bill. I have been provided with estimates on premium impacts that range from $0.73 [00:01:54] to $2 $15 per member per month, which means a family of four would likely pay as much as $100 more per year in insurance premiums if I were to sign this bill. Poet also wrote that the bill was unimplementable. [00:02:10] That's because, according to him, Colorado's Division of Insurance cannot enforce the measure as written. He also stated that the bill would create misaligned standards for ambulance reimbursement rates. Okay, so this one is tough. This is, again, a Democratic governor. [00:02:28] He had his reasons. I don't personally think his reasons were good enough to as I mean, he's vetoing something that passed unanimously in his Congress. That is almost unheard of. I don't care what state it is. That's a crazy amount of support behind anything. [00:02:44] And then the governor vetoed it because he personally didn't agree that, you know, people are going to want to spend $100 more, $100 more, or up to $100 more in insurance premiums, even though, like, these surprise bills might just get, you know, you know, they're going to be way more than $100. [00:03:02] Jordan, what do you make of it? Is this governor overstepping? Is he is he abusing that veto power by doing this? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we'll see. You know, I'm not intimately familiar like David is. David is a Colorado resident and his wife is in the state legislature. [00:03:20] So I would defer to him on legislative questions there. But but potentially the state legislature could override it. So we'll see. That I the justification for that you're naming these prices and I hadn't seen those amounts yet and my jaw dropped. [00:03:37] You're you're telling me that you want them to be able to surprise Bill consumers still, so that families might save $0.70 per member per month, $100 a year. [00:03:53] Do you know how much an ambulance ride costs? Several hundred dollars to potentially a few thousand dollars when you are in an emergency. You want your loved one, either you or your loved one, to get to the hospital as soon as possible. [00:04:08] You're not worried about the $0.70 per month that you might be paying, just to know that you're not going to be hit with a huge bill later. And it's a it's another example of Jared Polis just making very confusing conservative decisions, despite what his, [00:04:25] what his constituents voted him in to do. You might remember right after RFK came in, he was tweeting constantly trying to curry favor with RFK to make America healthy again. How's that going? Are you still happy about that, Governor Polis? [00:04:42] It's very, very disappointing. Yeah. What do you think, Sharon? Yeah. Having cared for my dearly departed mother and having to open up the mail and see some of these surprised ambulance bills, it's nonsensical. And the governor knows that it makes no sense because it's not really supposed to. [00:05:01] Who's in his ear, who's lobbying him? I can probably guess it's people getting rich off of these independent ambulance companies and the like, so he doesn't really care. At some point these unscrupulous people run for office and they become corrupted. [00:05:18] It seems to be taking less and less time. And I mean that I think corruption is a good word for it. You don't. They don't really care who their what their constituents want. It's special interests and the like who are in their ears. That's my opinion, because I think the details of this story [00:05:35] pretty much, make that plain, if you will. And it's just disgusting. We'll see what the legislature does. I don't hold much confidence in anyone. And that's why more people like the pediatrician and Lindsey Graham State need to run. Just test them. Just take them all the way. [00:05:54] Yeah, yeah. Like I've known people who needed emergency medical care and still did not want to call an ambulance just because you don't know how much they're going to charge you. Right. You have no idea how much that ambulance ride is going to cost. There is no ledger, right? There is no no price sheet that we can refer to. [00:06:12] And it's a real thing that affects real people in this country, across the entire country, not just in Colorado, obviously. And even if this does cost people $100 more in insurance premiums, at least that's $100 that they know they're going to pay, right? [00:06:28] As opposed to maybe thousands of dollars that they're just going to be billed with, surprisingly. And they're just going to I mean, we have to assume, I think, as Sharon pointed out, that someone is in his ear that he is doing the bidding of someone else who are not his constituents, [00:06:44] because you really, really have to go out of your way to try to defend something like this. His, his his defense was weak, very weak in my opinion. It was stupid. And it was really it not even comes close whenever you're trying to say, this is why I overrode a unanimous ruling from both of my houses of Congress. [00:07:05] So. And do you remember, yes. That it wasn't that long ago where the for profit health care industry was under fire for a lack of transparency, and they were supposed to make things clear. How much does a Band-Aid cost? How much is it? This is they don't want transparency for obvious reasons. [00:07:22] They want you to buy first or be forced into it, and they don't want to show you the prices on the menu. It's all by design, and this is really shameful in his behavior. Yeah. And I mean, there's so many people like this is not an unusual story here in the United States. [00:07:37] Whenever Americans go overseas or whenever people come here from overseas, they're appalled at American expectations of what medical treatment is or what it should be. You know, like we we have such a warped sense of what it is. Half of the ads that we see on television are for or for pharmaceuticals anyway. [00:07:54] Like, we just we have this weird relationship with our healthcare industry and it's not normal. And I wish it would stop. And it seems like Colorado tried to do something about it. And then the governor, one guy said, no, we're not going to do that. So every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. [00:08:09] Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.