Statement On Legislation To Study One-Size-Fits-All Health Insurance System
Apr 22, 2024
Paid for by Colorado’s Health Care Future, a project of Partnership for America’s Health Care Future Action.
DENVER – Colorado’s Health Care Future issued the following statement regarding House passage of HB24-1075, legislation to study replacing Colorado’s current health care system with an unaffordable, new one-size-fits-all “single-payer” health insurance system.
“Colorado voters have overwhelmingly rejected the unaffordable cost and consequences of eliminating the state’s entire health care system—including the coverage most Coloradans get through their employers—and replacing it with a one-size-fits-all system controlled by politicians. With the state government-controlled Colorado Option already failing to live up to its supporters’ promises, policymakers should instead work together toward proven solutions that build on what is working in our current health care system to improve affordability and access for Coloradans.”
Colorado Voters Overwhelmingly Rejected A ‘Single-Payer’ System:
- A proposed Colorado single-payer system “failed miserably” in 2016, with nearly 80 percent of Colorado voters rejecting it at the polls.
- The nonpartisan Colorado Health Institute estimated the one-size-fits-all system would cost nearly $64 billion per year by 2028 – an amount far larger than the state of Colorado’s entire operating budget – and run a $7.8 billion annual deficit.
The State Government-Controlled ‘Colorado Option’ Is Already Failing:
- Coloradans are already experiencing the higher costs and negative consequences of ‘single-payer lite’ through the Colorado Option, whose supporters claimed it would lower costs and provide more choices.
- Instead, the Colorado Option has objectively failed to fulfill those promises: Premiums continue to rise for consumers and Coloradans today have fewer coverage choices than they did before the Colorado Option was implemented – the exact opposite of what Coloradans were promised.
- A recent report by Lanhee J. Chen, Ph.D., Tom Church, and Daniel Heil found that just 15 percent of plans met the state’s initial-year premium targets, and even fewer plans met the state’s second-year targets.