Imagine for a moment that the U.S. had universal health care similar to all other industrialized countries, and that Amendment 69 was a proposal for the insurance based system we currently have.
People would be up in arms!! Ask any Canadian or European if they would go for it.
The explanation would go something like this: To have health coverage, you will give up the universal access to medical care that you currently have, and pay expensive premiums to for-profit insurance companies. About 20 percent of your health dollars will go to administrative costs and profit, instead of directly to health care providers. (The Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care estimates that under ColoradoCare, “$4.5 billion is left in Coloradans’ pockets” with savings from a new system that eliminate inefficiencies and waste). You will have to navigate a complex variety of policy options, and your specific health needs may not be covered. Even those that are will involve copays and deductibles that may carry you to bankruptcy due to medical debt. Your taxes will go down, but your health care expense will exceed that savings.
Apparently the devil we know is preferable to the devil we don’t know for many. But the devil is in the details, and the eight years of work that are behind the careful construction of Amendment 69 were well spent. This bill offers an opportunity for Colorado to take the lead on fair, affordable health care for all.
Let’s be the first to abandon a system that profits off of the sick, and instead include all people in a quality safety net of health care. Health care providers and patients win when all money spent goes directly to needed care. The system will be managed not by politicians and bureaucrats, but by an elected board. Would you really rather trust the insurance CEOs who make millions in profit to decide what is best for your health?
We’ve been wasting our health care dollars for far too long on a cumbersome, inefficient system.
Liza Tregillus
Durango
