Colorado legislators have proposed nothing in the way of comprehensive health care reform so far this session — but just wait a few more days.
On Thursday, the state’s blue-ribbon panel on health care reform will hand hundreds of pages of proposals and analysis to state lawmakers — and the fun will begin.
“My constituents are telling me they want to see comprehensive health care reform; businesses are telling me they need to see comprehensive health care reform,” said Rep. Anne McGihon, a Denver Democrat who chairs the House Health and Human Services Committee.
“It’s all only going to cost more and more if we don’t start this year,” McGihon said.
Many legislators have health-reform ideas in mind, she said, but have decided to wait to introduce legislation until the 208 Commission presents its work.
That group was charged with coming up with ideas to get health coverage to more of Colorado’s 790,000 uninsured residents — and bring down the cost of health care.
McGihon and health-reform advocates declined to discuss details of their plans or ideas but said they’re aware that people are nervous about the economy and more taxes.
“With the economy going downhill, that’s all the more reason to do this now,” McGihon said. “Look, we cover the cost of the uninsured one way or another.”
Families USA estimates that insured families in Colorado pay about $950 extra annually to cover the cost of the uninsured who end up in hospitals, needing expensive treatment they can’t afford.
With the problem of the uninsured growing, it’s states, more than the federal government, that have begun tackling reform, said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
In Colorado, 208 Commission members spent 15 months analyzing and pricing out four reform strategies. Ideas ranged from a modest expansion of public programs that help lower-income people, to creating a tax-funded nonprofit insurance program that would cover all Coloradans.
The cost: About $350 million to $15 billion.
The panel’s recommendation — a mandate that all Coloradans purchase health insurance — reflects the direction that other reform-minded states, including Massachusetts, have gone.
“One of the real problems is affordability, and it’s hard, with a voluntary system, to sustain low-cost insurance plans,” Rowland said.
“Those with the incentive to sign up are those with real need. If they are the only ones in your pool, the pool doesn’t work, and the price of your insurance goes up,” she said.
Rowland said she wasn’t surprised to hear the estimated price tag for implementing the commission’s proposal: $1.1 billion.
“Inevitably, you have to spend more to get full coverage,” Rowland said. “The issue is how much of that is the government’s responsibility and how much is individuals’ and their employers’.”
Bill Lindsay, chairman of the 208 Commission, said he doesn’t expect lawmakers to act on all the panel’s suggestions this year — given elections and the faltering economy.
Legislators could easily tackle small suggestions designed to reduce waste in the system, he said, such as standardizing claims paperwork, and could start a conversation about more comprehensive reform.
