ColoradoCare Campaign Turns In Over 150K Signatures
Well, by now you've no doubt heard the ColoradoCare folks were successful in their signature gathering for Initiative #20. That is an amazing accomplishment, and we offer our congratulations to the team of people who made that happen. And we know many HCAC members worked hard to secure signatures for Initiative #20. We honor that effort, and we honor the contributions of time and money it took to get there. Kudos to all.
We can look forward to several months of very active discussion about single-payer, universal health care in Colorado. Nothing but good can come of that for all of us. ColoradoCare has many components that make it more attractive than the system of health care financing currently in place. We know that finding a path forward on this issue that impacts so many people so profoundly is what matters most to our members and our ColoradoCare friends and neighbors.
There will be ample time in the weeks and months ahead to respectfully point out any remaining policy differences between the ColoradoCare plan as stated in Initiative #20 and single-payer plans. We at HCAC remain committed to our mission and the ultimate goal of achieving single-payer reform. But please be part of our efforts to make Colorado different in yet another way -- we may have a lively debate or three about policy, but we will respect and uplift this effort as one born of our own membership and leadership from years gone by.
After all, HCAC led the first health policy initiative signature-gathering campaign in 2013 with our "Health Care is a Human Right" effort, and many of our ranks have worked on both campaigns. Though that 2013 effort failed, it was also one of the building blocks for 2015. We can all be very proud that we live in a state that is so very committed to ending the suffering our dysfunctional health system has caused so many Coloradans over the years.
We will not be shy about congratulating the ColoradoCare team on this victory. Until the day when every human being in this state and this nation has equal access to a single-standard of appropriate medical care without financial barrier through an improved and expanded Medicare for all for life system, we march onward, shoulder-to-shoulder, knowing we each play our role in bending the arc of history toward justice.
Because the work goes on...
PNHP Review of ColoradoCare, 10/27/2015
Truthout article on ColoradoCare, 10/20/2015
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ColoradoCare! David Olinger reported (10 Nov) on Initiative 20: ColoradoCare-State Health Care System going to the 2016 ballot. Our quick question is, “What?…a 10% payroll tax (3.3% for employees)! No way! No more tax!” But, wait! What are we paying now? The Kaiser Family Foundation (http://www.statisticbrain.com/health-insurance-cost-statistics/) reports Average Annual Health Care Family Coverage at $15,745. So, if a family is earning $100,000 per year, that means the annual ColoradoCare premium would be yearly $10,000 or employee $3333! Hey!…saving an employee $12,412! All Coloradans are covered. All choose their providers. Byron McCurdy, board president of the Colorado State Association of Health Underwriters, lamented, “A single-payer system would destroy our industry.” Exactly! The first priority for sick people is to get well. Insurance companies must look after shareholders, draining money for actual care. Providers can eliminate multiple-payer costs. With single-payer ColoradoCare the patient comes first. —Bruce Harshberger, Loveland
Colorado doesn’t know what to do with the Marijuana tax well we just found its new use. It’s time to put a stop to does fat cats that have inflated prices more than 300%; let’s do this.