Expanding health-care coverage to nearly all Coloradans would create $3.8 billion in new economic output in 2019, according to an economic-impact study released Tuesday.
Expanding health-care coverage would increase economic output by $8.9 billion in 2019, but the cost of tax-financed health-care reform would cut that gain by $5.1 billion, according to the New America Foundation study.
Without reform, health-care and premium costs will continue to rise and more Coloradans will rely on Medicaid. By 2019, one in five Coloradans under age 65 will be uninsured and fewer than 60 percent will be covered by employer-sponsored insurance, according to the study, which was funded by the Colorado Health Foundation and the Colorado Trust.
Employer health-care contributions will rise by 109 percent without reform, and premium costs per worker will increase by nearly 105 percent — from $5,563 in 2009 to $11,375 by 2019, the study said.
The University of Denver’s Center for Colorado’s Economic Future also participated in the analysis.
