Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)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 Conyerss (D-MI) single-payer proposal which has the support of a large majority of House Democrats.
Colorados 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 Colorados constitution bans public funding for abortions, ColoradoCare wouldve 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 didnt 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 didnt 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 Colorados 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
24 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

Single-payer health care failed miserably in Colorado. 79 % voted NO. Heres why. Mandatory reading [View all]
factfinder_77
Sep 2017
OP
Our government has been captured by the rich and powerful at both the national and the state level.
Voltaire2
Sep 2017
#6
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
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
My son ges free health care in the union that covers everything. He is a Dem...but
Demsrule86
Sep 2017
#22
My takeaway from his post was that age brackets were intended to be the gradations.
Gidney N Cloyd
Sep 2017
#13