Today the campaign committee for universal health care in Colorado, ColoradoCareYES, delivered to the Colorado Secretary of State 156,107 signatures to place universal health care, ColoradoCare, on the ballot in 2016. Celebrations across Colorado — in Denver, Ft. Collins, Colorado Springs, and Grand Junction — marked this historic moment. In Colorado, when government fails or falls under too much influence of lobbyists and the powerful, citizens can put an issue on the ballot by submitting petitions containing signatures from over 5 percent of the voters who voted for Secretary of State in the last election. This was no small undertaking. The completely grassroots campaign required $590,000, and 580 volunteer petition carriers spending thousands of hours talking to their neighbors at farmer’s markets, festivals, and on the streets. Today’s success shows Coloradans are ready to take back their health care from Big Medicine and the rules its lobbyists have written in Washington. Help launch the campaign: Join us!
The U.S. health care system is broken beyond words—spending over twice as much as other developed countries, getting poorer results, and paying for an incredible swarm of bureaucrats in the space between patients and providers. Because the current Congress is barely capable of staying open for business, it is up to the states to make innovative change.
T.R. Reid, Spokesperson for ColoradoCareYES, explains:
“State-by-state change has been the template for some of the most important policy reforms in American history: women’s suffrage, the minimum wage, the progressive income tax, same-sex marriage, etc. Most recently, Colorado led the nation by ending the prohibition and criminalization of marijuana and replacing it with policies of rational regulation. If we can convert one state at a time, it will not be long until the U.S. joins the democratic, economically advanced countries of the world with universal health care.”
If a state meets or exceeds the goals of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), it may obtain a waiver to opt out of ObamaCare. ColoradoCare is just such a plan: it replaces ObamaCare with a universal health care plan. ColoradoCare covers all residents with comprehensive health care and no deductibles, while saving Coloradans $4.5 billion in 2019. This figure takes into account increased spending on previously unmet health care needs. This is possible because the current system is so overloaded with administrative bureaucracy and profits for insurance administrators that ColoradoCare can remove $6.2 billion of administrative waste.
Premiums are collected in a manner similar to the successful Medicare and Social Security programs — via both a payroll and non-payroll premium tax based on income. To avoid the partisanship and the inflexibility of government-managed programs, ColoradoCare is organized as a cooperative business. The cooperative business model is democratic and has a proven track record. Credit Unions, REI, Rural Electric Cooperatives, and the Green Bay Packers are cooperatives. Colorado residents would own ColoradoCare: Coloradans would elect the trustees and they would benefit from any savings.
We believe we can campaign smart with a ground game and win on the ballot in November 2016. Strong support is expected from Colorado businesses as they learn that they would save billions and get out from under the responsibility for administering employee health care. The choice for Coloradans will be clear-cut:
• Choose the current system designed in Washington and continue paying $4.5 billion more than with ColoradoCare, continue paying for $6.2 billion of wasteful administrative interference between patients and providers, and leave many people without health insurance and even more Coloradans underinsured
OR
• Choose ColoradoCare: Made in Colorado, locally controlled, costing $4.5 billion less, and covering everyone without deductibles.
Coloradans will have a full year to understand the choice, and we believe they will choose wisely.
The opponents are the owners of Big Medicine, who believe they are entitled to control the political and economic foundation and future of the health care system —big insurance, big pharmaceutical, and big hospital chains, with the big chambers of commerce that they dominate leading their resistance. The airwaves will be sold through Citizen’s United Express to the purveyors of dirty and dishonest advertising.
Today’s grassroots insurgency is reminiscent in many ways of the Spirit of 1776, when the Colonists decided to end the rule of the oligarchy of King George and the 0.1 percent of that day. The American Revolution replaced King George’s wealthy oligarchy with the novel idea of the time, democracy — a system in which the majority of the people, not the most wealthy and powerful, made the rules. In today’s politics, the corporate oligarchy and 0.1% have hijacked our democracy, and it is time for the people of Colorado to use the ballot initiative to take our democracy back.
ColoradoCareYES is building a Campaign Launch Fund and organizing to campaign smart and use people power to overcome the financial edge and dirty advertising of Big Medicine funding through Citizen’s United. The time is now. The infrastructure for the smart campaign requires $200,000 by the end of the year. We need support from around the nation. Early donations help the most — they help us grow and gain more donations as our year long campaign gains momentum.
Contribute and join us at www.ColoradoCareYES.CO. Help the movement grow and spread to other states.
Ivan J. Miller, Executive Director
ColoradoCareYES
Read More
