Colorado Dems are prying the doorback open for a single-payer system
By Rose Pugliese and Anthony Hartsook
With their latest push to explore
replacing our state’s entire
health insurance system
with a one-size-fits-all government-
controlled “single-payer”
scheme, Democratic legislators
are pursuing highly divisive,
ideologically driven health care
legislation that would only result
in negative consequences
for Coloradans. They do so despite
the fact that a singlepayer
system would come with
unaffordably high costs and after
80% of Colorado voters rejected
single-payer at the polls
in 2016.
House Bill 1075 purports to
be a “study,” but its directive is
clearly a foregone conclusion,
telling the CU School of Public
Health what the outcome
should be, which isn’t the point
of a study. Furthermore, as is
typically the case, not all relevant
stakeholders are invited to
the table.
The Colorado chapter of the
National Association of Benefit
and Insurance Professionals
note, for instance, that no
one from the insurance industry,
who have contended with
the many challenges of providing
benefits to enrollees for
decades, was included on the
“study’s” advisory task force.
Rather than pursuing partisan
policies that leave many
Coloradans’ perspectives and
needs out of the conversation,
we should be working together
on policy solutions that most
Coloradans can agree on.
Our state’s recent experiences,
both with the failed proposal
to create single-payer
health care and the ongoing
failures of the Colorado Option,
have already shown us that a
state government-controlled
health insurance system is not
the solution to making health
care more affordable or accessible
in Colorado.
In 2016, the Colorado Health
Institute estimated that a single-
payer system would cost almost
$62 billion per year by
2028, an amount higher than
our entire state budget. That
same year, nearly 80 percent
of Coloradans wisely voted
against a single-payer ballot
measure. Across party lines,
Coloradans united to reject the
high costs and immense risks
to access that a one-size-fits-all
health care system would bring.
Why then, do some Democratic
lawmakers continue to push for
this policy?
We know the negative consequences
that a partisan, ideologically
driven approach to
lawmaking delivers. Coloradans
are currently experiencing
the effects of that approach
with another governmentbacked
health care program,
the Colorado Option. When
Democrats in the state legislature
rushed through partyline
legislation to create the
Colorado Option in 2021, they
promised that it would lower
premiums and expand consumer
choice. Three years later,
it has not only failed to deliver
on those promises, but has in
fact delivered the precise opposite
result.
With the state governmentcontrolled
Colorado Option,
premiums continue to rise, and
coverage options are fewer. According
to the official rates released
by the Colorado Division
of Insurance itself, premiums in
the individual market rose this
year by 10 percent, just as they
did last year. What’s more, in
many counties Colorado Option
plans are not the least expensive
coverage option.
Since the Colorado Option’s
implementation, four insurance
carriers have left the state, leaving
consumers with fewer coverage
options to choose from.
Setting unsustainable rates and
manipulating the health insurance
market simply does not
work.
We have seen that the best
way to meet Coloradans’ needs
and enact effective policies is to
work across the aisle to reach
agreement on common-sense
solutions that benefit our whole
state. If you need an example,
just look to our recent achievements
with reinsurance and
mental health care.
Colorado Republicans have
demonstrated our willingness
to show up and work on effective
health care reform; we
just need a seat at the table.
Consumers need better
choices and an easier system to
navigate. It’s time for our Democratic
colleagues to acknowledge
that there is a better way
to address health care costs
that doesn’t impose an unaffordable
state government-controlled
health insurance system
on Colorado patients and taxpayers.
Rose Pugliese is Colorado
State House Minority Leader
and representative for House
District 14. Anthony Hartsook
is a member of the Colorado
House of Representatives,
representing Colorado’s 44th
House District.