From the Northern Colorado Business Report:
State Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, said he plans to introduce a bill in the next session of the Colorado General Assembly aimed at creating a single-payer health-care system for the state.
Kefalas … called the Colorado Guaranteed Healthcare Act — would “provide medical coverage to every Coloradan.”
Don’t count on it. Single-payer health care in other countries has failed patients again and again. For examples and links to studies, see here, here, and here. The article continues:
“The bill would essentially create a statewide comprehensive health-care system where people can choose their own doctor and get high-quality care,” he said. “It’s essentially a single-payer model using existing public dollars for public insurance with employers and individuals paying into the system.”
The bill would create a nonprofit agency separate from the state budget and the state legislature that would be responsible for administration, governance, delivery of services, quality of care and payment for services delivered.
… “This model would clearly limit the role of private insurance companies,” he said. …
Of course it would. This proposal would create a government-run monopoly on health insurance. Since when do government-granted monopolies serve customers well? What incentive does the monopoly have to do so, when it’s illegal to compete with it and customers must move out of the state to find another insurer?
The article continues:
“I think it has merit because the 208 Commission studied all this and a proposal similar to this was the only one that decreased costs,” he said.
Kefalas said he knows passing a single-payer bill will be a tough challenge in an economic downturn but said reducing health-care costs for state residents and small business would be a good thing for the state’s economy.
“If we can contain these costs, it’s going to have a significant impact on our economy,” he said. “It’s clearly an economic development issue.”
When have predictions of government spending been accurate? For example, Medicare predictions were way off.
“Containing costs” in this context is politician-speak for having a government bureaucrat decide what medical procedures you can have. Even if you want to spend your own money, authorities may “persuade” you to do otherwise. For example, last year the Times (UK) reported:
A woman will be denied free National Health Service treatment for breast cancer if she seeks to improve her chances by paying privately for an additional drug.
With increasing costs and shrinking budgets, could happen with Medicare patients, too.
