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February 3, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 22 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2021 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.
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A Colorado universal healthcare solution you haven’t heard of by Dave Anderson
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t is unlikely that any significant health care reforms will be coming out of Washington, D.C. any time soon. Meanwhile, there’s a growing under-reported effort by elected officials and grassroots activists to pass single-payer systems at the state level. Single payer is a not-for-profit government-provided payment system which is privately delivered. It is also known as “improved Medicare for All.” The movement is happening in California, New York, Massachusetts and more than a dozen other states. Including Colorado. Last September, the Colorado School of Public Health released a 91-page report that concluded if we adopted single payer, we could provide health coverage to every resident, increase employment and improve overall population health. At the same time, we would spend billions less than we are spending now on health care. The State Legislature commissioned the study in 2019
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with passage of the Health Care Cost Savings Act (H.B. 19-1176), introduced by Reps. Emily Sirota and Sonya Jaquez Lewis and Sen. Mike Foote. It passed with bipartisan support. A Health Care Cost Analysis Task Force was created, which had bipartisan membership appointed by the governor and both parties’ leaders in the legislature. The group hired the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) to conduct the financial analysis. The study compared three approaches to providing health care for Coloradoans. They are: • “The current Colorado health care financing system in which residents receive health care coverage from private insurers and public programs, or are uninsured.” • “A multi-payer universal health care system in which all residents of Colorado are covered under a plan with a mandated set of benefits that is publicly and privately funded and also paid for by employer and employee contributions.” That is, a system of universal coverage that covers everybody, using both private health insurance paid for by workers and see THE ANDERSON FILES Page 6
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