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factfinder_77

(841 posts)
Fri Sep 15, 2017, 04:31 PM Sep 2017

Single-payer health care failed miserably in Colorado. 79 % voted NO. Heres why. Mandatory reading [View all]

On the day the state of Colorado voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump by about 5 points, voters there also rejected a ballot measure to enact a state-based single-payer system by an astounding margin of 79 percent to 21 percent.

Amendment 69, the Colorado Creation of ColoradoCare System Initiative, would have created a system in which all Coloradans would gain insurance through a tax-funded government insurance program. Private health insurers would have been rendered obsolete.

The Colorado initiative bears a resemblance to the Medicare-for-all legislation released by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) this week and endorsed by leading Democrats like Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and to HR 676, Rep. John Conyers’s (D-MI) single-payer proposal which has the support of a large majority of House Democrats.

Colorado’s initiative, in other words, matched the 2017 health care platform of the Democratic Party. And it failed — really, really, really badly.

“The proposal came too soon and too fast for where voters were,” Joel Dyar, who worked as state field director for the ColoradoCare Yes campaign, says.

Some of that failure is attributable to the unique challenges of adopting single-payer through a ballot initiative, and at the state level. Because Colorado’s constitution bans public funding for abortions, ColoradoCare would’ve taken away access to abortion from the hundreds of thousands of women currently in private health plans that cover the procedure. That earned the amendment the opposition of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, two leading progressive groups in the state. “They didn’t check in advance to see if this was a problem,” Karen Middleton, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, recalls. “By the time anyone had seen the language, it was already locked in.”

And because the proposal had to be set in stone in order to appear on the ballot, advocates didn’t have time to negotiate with key stakeholders on details of the plan, meaning few stakeholders bought in. Many progressive think tanks like the Colorado Fiscal Institute and the Bell Policy Center, unions like the United Food and Commercial Workers, and advocacy groups like ProgressNow Colorado wound up opposing the plan. “A poorly thought-through initiative like Amendment 69 does violence to the future of single-payer in Colorado,” Ian Silverii, ProgressNow Colorado’s executive director, says.

But other obstacles will be just as present in a federal fight. Entrenched interest groups, particularly insurers, spent millions opposing the measure. Moderate Democrats like Gov. John Hickenlooper, Sen. Michael Bennet, and former Gov. Bill Ritter came out against it. And ultimately, Colorado voters were just not persuaded

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/14/16296132/colorado-single-payer-ballot-initiative-failure
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Interesting information WhiteTara Sep 2017 #1
As a Coloradoan, there is a LOT more to it than this! CherokeeFiddle Sep 2017 #2
++100 randr Sep 2017 #3
Our government has been captured by the rich and powerful at both the national and the state level. Voltaire2 Sep 2017 #6
It seems that you lost many natural allies brer cat Sep 2017 #8
That's it, conveniently ignored truth. Autumn Sep 2017 #9
Thanks for this nt riderinthestorm Sep 2017 #12
There will always be Koch money lined up against this BannonsLiver Sep 2017 #16
What makes you think the same money won't attack national single payer? It was successful in CO pnwmom Sep 2017 #18
It would be hillarycare all over again...yes...the ACA must be saved. It is all we have and will Demsrule86 Sep 2017 #21
We are smart enough to chew gum and walk at same time CherokeeFiddle Sep 2017 #23
I would add...time will tell...let's see if the ACA survives. If it doesn't then we have our answer. Demsrule86 Sep 2017 #24
I support single-payer healthcare Sen. Walter Sobchak Sep 2017 #4
My son ges free health care in the union that covers everything. He is a Dem...but Demsrule86 Sep 2017 #22
This needs to be done in stages. kacekwl Sep 2017 #5
Medicare took effect for everyone aged 65 and older on July 1 1966. Voltaire2 Sep 2017 #7
65 and older to start kacekwl Sep 2017 #10
You claimed that Medicare was implemented gradually Voltaire2 Sep 2017 #11
My takeaway from his post was that age brackets were intended to be the gradations. Gidney N Cloyd Sep 2017 #13
Most Businesses will just benefit. Voltaire2 Sep 2017 #15
Companies shouldn't be benefiting. They should come out even, because the money they have been pnwmom Sep 2017 #19
The post said "designed", which is partly true Jim Lane Sep 2017 #20
Dirty tricks. GOP specialty. lindysalsagal Sep 2017 #14
Yes, it looks like this failed for the same reason as in California. R B Garr Sep 2017 #17
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