From the Daily Camera (Boulder):
Broomfield Republican state Sen. Shawn Mitchell said he doesn’t expect to have much influence on legislation as a member of the minority, but he will draw attention to the ways he thinks the Democratic majority contributed to the state’s financial problems.
“The state saw this coming and yet went on a hiring spree,” he said. “The current crunch is much worse than it had to be.” …
Mitchell said he’ll push for market-oriented health care reform, instead of more mandates and regulation.
Read the whole article: Looming budget deficit will dominate Colorado General Assembly in 2010.
I am not sure what Mitchell has in mind, but off the top of my head:
- Allowing Coloradans to buy insurance available in other states. Corey Gardner proposed such a bill in Colorado last year.
- Something along the lines of the Utah Health Insurance Exchange. Yes, a government-run “exchange” scares me. I mean, when government runs an “exchange” it determines what you can and cannot exchange. Yet, Grace-Marie Turner has good things to say about it:
…it demonstrates why state-level policy innovation–not top-down, federal planning–is the key to improving America’s health sector.Run by just two Utah officials with almost no new taxpayer money, the Exchange provides an online portal where employees of small businesses can combine contributions from their employers with their own pre-tax dollars to purchase the policy of their choice. Because participating employers don’t have to take on the administrative burden of setting up an insurance plan, this service promises to substantially cut down on the cost of offering health coverage.
Read more about it here.
