Colorado gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet announced Friday that he’ll seek a public option for health insurance if elected.
Bennet, who is running for the Democratic nomination, said he had pushed for a public option during Senate debates leading up to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and its omission turned out to be a significant missed opportunity.
If elected governor, he’d propose a state-run health insurance plan for people earning too much to qualify for Medicaid, but less than 200% of the federal line, he said. Colorado adults qualify for Medicaid if they earn up to 138% of the poverty line, with .
The Colorado legislature has flirted with the idea of a public option.
In 2021, lawmakers opted to create “Colorado option” plans, which are subject to more regulations but sold by private companies. Last year, almost half of the people buying on the individual marketplace opted for a Colorado option plan.
Phil Weiser’s health plan emphasizes primary care, using courts to lower costs
Bennet also proposed allowing school districts, county governments, certain small businesses and people between 25 and 35 to buy into the state employee health plan.
Campaign representatives didn't include cost estimates and said they couldn't share many details of the public option or the buy-in at this point, because the state would need to work with health care providers to design them.
Without information such as how many people would be eligible, what they'd pay toward their care and whether federal tax credits could offset some of the costs, estimating a price tag for a public option and other policies is impossible.
The senator's eight-page plan overview also called for:
- Making Medicaid more efficient
- Investigating private equity owners in health care
- Supporting rural hospitals
- Requiring health insurance to count more expenses toward patients' deductibles
- Forcing pharmacy middlemen to pass rebates to consumers
While the public option is an important part of the plan, all the pieces have to work together to move the system toward paying for value rather than service volume, Bennet said.
"We've got to really dramatically change the way we pay for health care," he said. "We're in a moment where we can’t continue to nibble around the edges of a broken system."
Attorney General Phil Weiser, who is also running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, had a similarly expansive plan, though without references to a public option or buy-in.
Weiser's plan calls for:
- Using the courts to fight cuts to public programs
- Creating a task force to inform decisions on health care funding
- Appointing a chief information officer to improve telehealth and establish guardrails
- Expanding price comparison tools
- Improving Medicaid eligibility determinations
Both plans were light on details about how the candidates would achieve their goals if elected, including how they'd pay for their priorities.
A spokesman for Weiser’s campaign declined to comment on Bennet's proposal.
