Colorado Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter said during a Monday online town hall meeting that victims of the July 20 movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. “would be uninsurable” without President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.
“[U]nder the Affordable Care Act they can’t be discriminated against starting in 2014.”
RevealingPolitics.com reproduced video of Perlmutter telling his constituents that Obamacare would “stop the discrimination against people with prior illnesses or injuries — or, say, some of the folks who were shot in the theater.”
Perlmutter also called for a renewal of the federal government’s 1994 assault weapons ban in the wake of the shooting. James Holmes, a 24-year-old former graduate student, has been charged with 24 counts of murder.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, another Democrat, has been more measured in his response to the Aurora tragedy.
“I think the discussions of ‘do we need stricter laws’ should probably wait until the families have grieved,” Hickenlooper said July 23, “and at least until we bury the people who we lost.”