Colorado Battles Big Government Health Care
Colorado’s “Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform” recently published it’s final report. Predictably, the commission advocates the standard collection of mandates, subsidies (to families earning as much as $80,000), and “cost shifting.” To quote the report:
“Eleven (11) of the health care reform proposals submitted to the Commission included an individual mandate as a key strategy for covering the uninsured, making an individual mandate the most common strategy proposed to the Commission ..”
The dissenting minority report, by Linda Gorman and R. Allan Jensen, advocates free market approaches to reform, and is summarized in a recent Rocky Mountain News editorial by Gorman and Ari Armstrong:
“To “fix” the problem of $239 million in cost-shifting, the commission proposes to increase health spending in Colorado by more than $3 billion, funded with an income tax increase of $800 million to $1.8 billion, new taxes on various politically incorrect types of food and drink, and an increase in the cigarette tax.”
“The sensible way to solve cost-shifting is to reduce health-care costs so that people fund their own health care, not to force people to buy insurance created by special-interest groups or to expand Medicaid. “
In other more encouraging Colorado health-care news, state senators from both parties are joining forces to oppose state senate bill 164, a gift to trial lawyers which would loosen statutory restraints on malpractice lawsuits at the very time legislators are supposedly trying to reduce healthcare costs. And finally Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner (R) is sponsoring HB 1327 to allow Colorado residents to purchase health insurance products offered in other states to increase competition in the Colorado market. Coloradans, now would be a good time to let your state representatives and senators know where you stand, by supporting market-based rather than big-government solutions on health care.
Links to Blue Ribbon Commission, Gorman in Rocky Mountain News, Colorado Senate News
