DENVER – In an op-ed published by Colorado Politics, Chris Brown, vice president of policy and research at the Common Sense Institute, highlights the potential harmful consequences of Colorado’s unaffordable, new state government-controlled health insurance system known as the “Colorado Option.” Experts, including Brown, warn the government-controlled system could lead to higher costs and reduced access to quality care.

Brown writes, “the Colorado Option’s allowable growth formula wildly underestimates the actual costs healthcare providers will face in coming years — from medical supplies to workforce and more.” He adds, “this failure of the Colorado Option to meet the underlying costs of care will force difficult choices across the market. Providers — doctors, nurses, hospitals and caregivers — will be forced to choose between cutting services or passing costs on to the remaining private insurance market, thereby increasing rates on everyone else.”

Brown notes “the huge task of developing a government-run health-care option has also led to months-long delays in the system’s implementation as the state struggles to establish clear guidelines under which insurers and health-care providers would be expected to carry out the policy.” Key stakeholders warned the Colorado Division of Insurance this spring that “it will be almost impossible for carriers, providers, and facilities to effectively comply in this limited timeframe.”

Brown concludes, “though the cost of health care is a real concern for Coloradans, evidence continues to mount that strict government price controls in the Colorado Option may save a small number of people but shift those savings on to other people’s bill. More important, it will put patients’ access to quality health-care services at risk.”
 

• To read the full op-ed at Colorado Politics, CLICK HERE.
• To read the full Common Sense Institute analysis of the Colorado Option, CLICK HERE.