{"id":95561,"date":"2019-02-15T15:56:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T22:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ex-colorado-gov-hickenlooper-supports-universal-health-care\/"},"modified":"2019-02-15T15:56:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T22:56:30","slug":"ex-colorado-gov-hickenlooper-supports-universal-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ex-colorado-gov-hickenlooper-supports-universal-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper supports universal health care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, attended a campaign house party last week in Manchester, N.H.<\/span>Elise Amendola\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But as other Democrats already in the race endorse \u201cMedicare-for-all,\u201d Hickenlooper told a crowd last week at a New Hampshire college that it was more important now to get behind the general idea rather than argue over a specific approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject the notion that it should become a litmus test of what it takes to be a good Democrat,\u201d said Hickenlooper, who expanded Medicaid while governor and has teamed with former Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, on a health care overhaul.<\/p>\n

The onetime Denver mayor, who\u2019s considered a centrist politician, said after holding a town hall that he will not decide for several more weeks whether to join the crowded 2020 contest. He took questions mostly from students and faculty on topics including student debt, the ballooning national debt and relations with American allies around the world.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper said he was concerned that the push for \u201cMedicare-for-all\u201d calls for dismantling the current system when less disruptive measures may achieve universal health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many different ways to cut the pie and work on the issue that we too often are trying to say, \u2018You\u2019re wrong, I\u2019m right,\u2019 and this is even within the Democrat Party,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s more important to be unified and say we want universal coverage. We are not going to stop until we get universal coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts already running, the challenge for Hickenlooper is showing he is liberal enough to compete. He cited liberal policies he enacted as governor dealing with methane emissions and teenage pregnancies and abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways, I\u2019m a lot more progressive than a lot of these other folks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper also insisted he would have no problem going up against President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up the skinny kid with thick glasses and a funny last name. I\u2019ve dealt with bullies my whole life,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way to deal with a bully is you don\u2019t punch back and take them head on. You take what they say to you and \u2026 you reframe it in a way that reveals the foolishness of what they\u2019re saying and the weakness and insecurity that they\u2019re demonstrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Hickenlooper gave an address at the Global Security Conference in Munich about trade and the trans-Atlantic partnership. The trip would help burnish the former governor\u2019s foreign policy credentials ahead of any possible presidential campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, left, attended a campaign house party last week in Manchester, N.H.Elise Amendola\/Associated Press But as other Democrats already in the race endorse \u201cMedicare-for-all,\u201d Hickenlooper told a crowd last week at a New Hampshire college that it was more important now to get behind the general idea rather than argue over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5735,6212],"tags":[481,299],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-state-nation-world","tag-gov-john-hickenlooper","tag-national-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95561"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}