AURORA, Colo.—Members of a blue ribbon commission studying health care reform said Wednesday they will offer lawmakers a menu of options they hope will eventually allow all 792,000 uninsured residents of Colorado get health insurance, but they warned it won’t be easy or cheap.
Options that will be presented to lawmakers on Thursday include a requirement that everyone in Colorado have health insurance and a suggestion that the state increase funding for child health care and Medicaid to reduce long-term costs for medical care.
William Lindsay III, chairman of the panel formed by Gov. Bill Ritter and lawmakers last year to study the problem, said a key objective will be to provide affordable insurance for everyone in the state. He said to do that, lawmakers have to find a way to reduce costs.
“Obviously you can’t mandate coverage if people can’t get coverage,” he said at a forum to discuss the panel’s recommendation.
Lindsay said the insurance industry and the state will have to work together for reform.
“The notion of taking people and putting them in a system that is broken doesn’t make sense,” he said.
Donald Kortz, business representative on the panel, said mandating that businesses provide insurance would be counterproductive because businesses would leave the state. He said individuals should be responsible for their own health care.
The 27-member Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform is offering five proposals. One would require that people buy insurance and prevent companies from rejecting sick applicants; others include a $26 billion a year plan to provide insurance to everyone in the state in a single-payer plan; a plan to provide a basic benefit package through a large insurance pool with a $50,000 cap on benefits; a plan to require all Coloradans to have health insurance; and a proposal to place mandates on individuals and employers to provide coverage or pay an assessment.
Lindsay said the commission recommended that the state continue to study the single payer plan, but he said it currently is unlikely because it would require multiple acts of Congress to waive requirements for veterans benefits, federal employees and other federal health programs.
