WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Coloradans Express Concern About The State Government Option

Mar 18, 2021

DENVER – Following the introduction of the proposal to create a state government-controlled health insurance system, voices throughout Colorado are sounding the alarm on the harmful consequences of state government-controlled health insurance systems and encouraging lawmakers to instead work together to build on and improve what’s working in health care to provide Coloradans with access to affordable, high-quality health coverage and care.

Colorado’s hospitals do not operate in a silo; our healthcare system is fully integrated. Yet, rural residents are asked to trust that officials will be able to account for the countless conditions unique to each rural community… Our unified healthcare system is much larger than one physician, one hospital and one health system… By our healthcare leaders and state officials collaborating and working together broadly across the state, patients receive better care, and ultimately, lives are saved.

… Although it is often challenging, Colorado’s rural healthcare networks are on the right path.Coloradans shouldn’t have to sacrifice quality of care, access to care and their insurance coverage on a short-sighted solution to a complex issue. Lawmakers can do better and find solutions that will not put an unsustainable burden on Colorado’s healthcare system and rural communities. A public option insurance option is too consequential to be left to chance.

The Colorado legislature is debating whether to a “public option” insurance plan to the choices already available on the state’s Connect for Health Colorado insurance exchange. But a state-level public option simply isn’t justified by the facts on the ground.

Data from the Polis administration has shown that low and middle-income families who have government-subsidized health-care premiums would actually pay more every month for their insurance if the government-controlled plan became a reality.

When it comes to public policy, particularly on a matter as significant as a government-run health care system, facts and data matter. We simply cannot afford to make mistakes when it comes to our health care system.

Now is not the time to make a massive pivot and change that will strain our workers and our systems as we finish out and end the pandemic… There’s some interesting work that’s already going on, which is how you really love it to be, that the feds or the state, that is, that public policy doesn’t have to solve it, that we solve it on our own. Where some systems are getting into a more collaborative relationships with insurers, where we’re holding each other’s feet to the fire around quality and value. And I think that that’s work that we need to continue to do.

While we continue to face a daunting public health crisis, lawmakers should listen to health care and business leaders on the front lines to focus on strengthening and stabilizing our health care system, so all Coloradans can access the care they need — not create an untested public option that we cannot afford.

This is the time to go slow. Let us get some stability. We’ve got to stabilize the health care system, which, my belief is, at least another year of just working through the complexities and the vagaries that have happened to the system as a result of COVID.

The proposed Colorado Affordable Health Care Option is not the broad solution politicians claim. With unintended consequences to quality and access, it may force hospitals to eliminate some critical care functions.

… Is now the time to pile on more regulation and government control, seizing upon a crisis to boost state power? Is now the time to strangle those free market heroes who served us so bravely the past year? Is now the time to put future miracles at risk?

On its surface, creating a state-operated public insurance option seems to offer a shiny fix. Instead, a government insurance option could have adverse effects by slashing the quality of care and threatening access to care, while we are all dealing with a public health crisis. Here in Colorado and across the country, government-operated insurance programs have been tried and have failed. Results have ranged from ineffective to disastrous.

Real solutions, however, will require a comprehensive and collaborative approach that brings all parties to the table — not unilateral government controls that simply create appearances of savings… While there’s always room to improve, it is important we acknowledge the current system is making progress and a new government option will only impede on the work already being done.