Special thanks for Veronica Lasater's letter, http://bit.ly/2cWJ494, (Times, Sept. 23) compiling her insurance industry's talking-point falsehoods from TV ads, "Coloradans for Coloradans" website (99-percent industry-funded), and heavily financed politicians.
Please follow the actual text of Amendment 69: http://bit.ly/2d7V6S5.
Lasater "can't know what the benefits will be," but Section 6 (1) specifies 11 comprehensive categories.
Lasater says, "anyone can ... get health care at Colorado taxpayers' expense!" Section 2 (11) specifies the one continuous year residency requirement for us "members." If folks did come here, they'd need housing, food and living expenses, so they'd get jobs and pay into the system a full year BEFORE THEY EVER GOT BENEFITS. Can't eat future health care!
Section 5, (1) (a) states: "A member-elected board of twenty-one trustees shall govern ColoradoCare." Lasater prefers the current dictatorship of out-of-state corporate control. I'd far rather have ColoradoCare - democracy - and control my own health care.
Section 9 (8) specifies tax increases "only if a majority of the MEMBERS of ColoradoCare ... approve it."
Lasater's "the tax will stay" if ColoradoCare fails - again, industry falsehood. Read Section 16.
The state of Colorado's own fiscal impact statement on ColoradoCare, http://bit.ly/2cCtPkG, confirms ColoradoCare's financial projections, adding that after $60 million to start, ColoradoCare fully implemented will save Colorado state government itself $147.3 million in one year!
Funding? ColoradoCare will raise $25 billion in payroll taxes ... replacing $30 billion in premiums, deductibles, profits to distant investors. Oh, add next year's rates skyrocketing 28 percent: http://bit.ly/2cSgZPR.
ColoradoCare taxes are LESS, and everyone gets a premium policy, ZERO deductible. Better for less. Payroll taxing means the less you make, the less you pay. Smart and ethical.
Lasater's sarcastic comparison to Veterans Administration health care fails. Unlike the VA, ColoradoCare does not provide health care, only funding for ANY provider you choose. ColoradoCare is based on popular Medicare, serving millions efficiently for 50 years. Compare administration costs: Medicare - 3 percent; industry's rat-tunnel maze - 20-30 percent. Compare purpose: Medicare, ColoradoCare - provision of health care; private industry - harvesting profit from us.
Refrencing "doctors WILL leave Colorado ... ", Section 5 (4) (g) establishes procedures to ensure financial sustainability by adjusting payments and benefits. Savings come from health care's 20 percent fat - profits, lousy administration, drug price-gouging, etc., not from the 8 percent meat of practitioner income.
Jobs? You better believe $4.3 BILLION back in our pockets to spend WILL benefit businesses!
I urge Ms. Lasater to admit her personal financial stake - she holds a Colorado Health Insurance Producer License.
Kirby MacLaurin
Durango
