It was going to be quite exciting.
Republican gubernatorial candidates Congressman Bob Beauprez and Marc Holtzman and Democratic candidate Bill Ritter at the Capitol talking health care.
Who wouldn’t be thrilled?
Well, turns out, Beauprez called two days ago to cancel his appearance. He’s busy in Washington. How about anti-
establishment candidate Marc Holtzman versus the Democratic challenger?
No Holtzman?
More and more it seems that Ritter is a personification of Woody Allen’s famous quip: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
Here a gubernatorial forum had become a campaign stop for the sole Democrat. Judging from this short and impressive performance, Ritter’s candidacy shouldn’t be underestimated by Republicans or Democrats.
It’s not that Ritter was exactly heavy on particulars. In fact, on health care issues, his campaign literature provides plenty of bromides such as: “No Coloradan, especially our senior citizens, should have to choose between buying food and paying their electric bill or getting the prescription drugs they need.”
And when Ritter spoke – like any good candidate – he strayed from specifics.
Essentially, his plan to fix the health care system is more of a process. Bring all the players to the table – insurers, insurees, government, employers – and hash it out.
After all, he explained, we have more than 700,000 uninsured in Colorado.
No one should go without medical care. But we should remember that not all of these uninsured people are “persistently uninsured” and some are also Medicaid- eligible. Additionally, many young adults choose not to have insurance. So the numbers can be a bit deceiving.
Ritter keyed in on three major problems that plague our health care system. First, access to care. Second, geographical problems (in rural Colorado, for instance, he explained, some residents have access to a doctor only once a week.) Third, level of care.
While it is refreshing to hear a Democrat such as Ritter throw out the occasional phrase like “personal responsibility,” it was evident that he was staking a position in the winning mold of Sen. Ken Salazar’s senatorial campaign.
Fortunately for Republicans, soft-
spoken state Sen. Shawn Mitchell – who’s such an effective advocate for free-market ideas that it’s a mystery why the faltering Colorado Republicans don’t use him more – followed Ritter with the conservative take on health insurance.
Mitchell, of Broomfield, asked those gathered who support more government and government-run health care “to at least consider” some of the negative elements of big bureaucracy.
Do we want health care run like the
motor-vehicle department? Do we want the disaster that awaits us with a “single- payer,” government-run health care system?
Mitchell pointed out a recent Canadian Supreme Court opinion on that nation’s public health care system, which was blamed for producing more inequality and poor care.
“Access to a waiting list is not access to health care,” wrote Canadian Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who is certainly not a right-winger.
But both Ritter and Mitchell spoke to the most important aspect of health care: rising prices.
Mitchell, who is not running for governor and has the luxury of being specific, pointed to health savings accounts as one choice.
“We have to create incentive,” he said. Competition would, naturally, drive prices down. As a bonus, an employee would no longer be linked to the employer.
When you lose your job, when you change your job, you make your own decisions.
I’m sure that Beauprez and Holtzman will have a lot to say on health care as we move forward.
But for Ritter – and Shawn Mitchell – showing up can make all the difference.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
