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Hope Cook: We need to figure out health care together

On Friday, I joined several likeminded folks to hopefully have an opportunity to express my concerns about repealing the Affordable Care Act — poorly named as I was told because it is not affordable to a lot of people but that is for discussion at another time.

It was very disappointing that Senator Gardner chose not to attend. Regardless of the reason, the possibility versus the reality had given all of us in that hot sun, hope that for a moment a face to face might give him a teensy bit of understanding, why there are so many concerned about the implications of repealing the ACA.

Granted we were not there to say good job about the Republican efforts to tackle healthcare but in no way were we there to “terrorize,” even mildly. We live in a democracy and were exercising our 1st Amendment right to express our viewpoints.



The comments in the aftermath of Friday’s peaceful demonstration are equally disappointing. The only thing I totally agree with Mr. Mathis is why can’t we all get along? We all do or will need health care in our lives, so why is it we can’t figure it out?

Because it is complicated. We all need to figure it out together — Republicans, Democrats, federal-state level representatives, health care providers, healthcare consumers, males, females. When Americans sit down together not with shouts or intimidation but creativity, respect and intelligence, we show what makes our country so great.



Please contact Senator Gardner at 202-224-5941 in Washington, D.C. or Denver at 303-391-5777 to ask him to stand up for an inclusionary process not exclusionary.

Hopefully then all aspects of healthcare can be evaluated in a non-partisan fashion, and hopefully, a solution achieved that is fair and sustainable for us, our kids and generations to come. That is what we all wanted to say Friday.

Hope Cook

Steamboat Springs


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