Over 150,000 people signed a petition that began with these words to get ColoradoCare on the 2016 ballot. We will see this language again when it comes time to vote, so it is important to get clear about the meaning and implications of Amendment 69.
President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965. This law was a governmental response to the market failure of health insurance to cover seniors – important whether you view health care as a commodity or a right. ColoradoCare is a people-driven response to the most expensive and least effective health care system in the developed world. It is a fair approximation to consider ColoradoCare like Medicare, but ColoradoCare would cover all residents of Colorado not just seniors.
It may seem counterintuitive to think of ColoradoCare decreasing the amount our state spends on health care when we see that 25 BILLION staring at us. But if we understand that Coloradans would no longer pay for health insurance - which includes overhead, high executive pay, administrative costs for insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals - it becomes easier to see how our state would save a net 4.5 billion beginning the first year. The system becomes simpler. Taxes go up, but costs for health insurance go away.
Health insurance companies would no longer make health care decisions for Coloradans. All residents would have access to health care comparable in quality to the current platinum insurance plans. There would be no deductibles and copayments, if any, would be waived for those with financial need. And Coloradans would retain - or gain, as the case may be - the ability to choose their primary care physician. There would be no more limited networks.
Everyone would pay into ColoradoCare, and every resident would be covered. Employees would pay a small percentage of payroll, a little over three percent. Businesses would pay double that. Self-employed people would pay the employee and business parts, ten percent. Non payroll income would be taxed at ten percent, with much retirement income exempted. This is a purple plan for a purple state.
The state would collect our tax dollars, and these funds would go directly into ColoradoCare – not the general fund. This amendment bypasses TABOR. These tax dollars will not be subject to the whims of the legislature. ColoradoCare will have its own elected management. If the managing board wants to raise taxes in order to meet the goals of the Amendment, a statewide vote would need to support that decision.
ColoradoCare will be a political subdivision of the state – a quasi-governmental organization. Managing operations will be three trustees elected from each of Colorado’s seven districts. These board members will administer a simpler, coordinated, nonprofit payment system to provide care and control cost. Lobbyists might still try to influence these trustees, but written into the Amendment is the capacity for board members to vote people off the board who are not fulfilling their duties.
Amendment 69 makes clear that among the duties of the ColoradoCare Board are improving access to health care for all Coloradans, enhancing the health care experiences for Coloradans, giving Coloradans the right to choose their primary physician, and improving the working lives for providers.
Negotiating the prices for pharmaceuticals, buying in bulk, and creating an estimated 25,000-plus jobs are some of the game-changers that come with ColoradoCare. But eliminating unnecessary deaths due to a lack in health insurance, eliminating fears of going without care or medicines because of cost, and eliminating the financial ruin some families face to care for a family member are the real game-changers.
Read more about ColoradoCare!