Polis Health Care Plan Shows Why Elections Matter

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by: Colorado Pols

“Roadmap to Saving Coloradans Money on Health Care” rollout on Thursday

Governor Jared Polis rolled out a detailed plan on Thursday morning for reducing health care costs in Colorado called the “Roadmap to Saving Coloradans Money on Health Care.”

In an event at Denver Health Medical Center, Polis outlined a proposal that includes several pieces of legislation currently making their way through the State Capitol. As KOAA News reports:

Polis already signed a hospital transparency bill into law last week. That law requires hospitals to report their annual spending and expenditures as part of an effort to lower health care prices.

There are already bills going through the legislature to import prescription drugs from Canada and introduce a reinsurance pool designed to lower premiums for private insurers.

In addition to short-term solutions, Polis also mentioned plans to incentivize preventative care, introduce healthy options to children at schools, improve immunization rates and introduce a separate plan to address behavioral health.

Here’s more detail from a press release:

“Health care costs too much,” said Governor Jared Polis. “No Coloradan should have to go without care because they can’t afford it. This roadmap will be our guide to saving people money on healthcare and ensuring better access to affordable care for everyone in our state.”

Colorado has taken significant steps to increase access to health care and insurance coverage during the past decade. As a result, today only 6.5 percent of Coloradans don’t have health insurance compared to 15.8 percent in 2013. Despite this improvement, the cost of care has been increasing at an alarming rate, especially in rural areas and mountain communities.

All of the central legislative efforts outlined in Polis’ health care proposal have bipartisan support. In other words, these are all bills that could have been shepherded through the legislative process at any point in the last several years.

The reason you aren’t already saving more money on health care costs is because that would have required Senate Republicans to do something other than obstructing Democratic bills and obfuscating about sexual harassment with their one-seat majority in 2017 and 2018. Republicans such as former Senate President Kevin Grantham liked to say that they served as a “check” on Democratic control; in reality, they were an obstacle to reasonable discussions about all sorts of common-sense legislative approaches.

There is absolutely no way that these health care savings efforts would have been produced without Colorado voters giving Democrats both a majority and a mandate in November 2018. The right leadership matters. Elections matter.

7 thoughts on “Polis Health Care Plan Shows Why Elections Matter”

Independent Voter says:

April 4, 2019 at 4:59 pm

This is outstanding, if Polis gets this much done in his first time he'll exceed my expectations. We really, really need the state option. I hope that we can get a revised amendment 69 on the ballot in 2020 and Polis supports it but any sort of state option to make insurance companies compete is great. Just 3 months on the job and Polis is already the best governor we've ever had in this state.

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Voyageur says:

April 4, 2019 at 5:13 pm

Actually, the best governor of the post World War II era was Steve McNichols. Before that, I'd vote for Davis "Bloody Bridles" Waite.

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mamajama55 says:

April 4, 2019 at 5:28 pm

How dare Polis make health insurance less expensive in rural Colorado? Overreach! Socialists! Nazis! NazSocis! Must Recall him now!!!

Sheesh…

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1. Diogenesdemar says:
  
  April 4, 2019 at 5:55 pm
  
  “. . . raise immunization rates . . .”???
  
  Let the hellastoopid begin . . .
  
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  1. Pseudonymous says:
    
    April 5, 2019 at 8:03 am
    
    Thousands of children are treated for vaccine-preventable diseases every year. We want to empower Coloradans with science and facts, so they can make the best decisions for their families.
    
    If these fucking idiots could be convinced by evidence, their kids wouldn't be mobile disease vectors threatening the health of everyone who comes into contact with them. More information won't help– these folks are impervious to it. Require vaccinations as a matter of law, with exemptions only for those children for whom it is actually medically necessary. Jared is terribly wrong on this, and he should do something real to fix this problem.
    
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    1. Genghis says:
      
      April 5, 2019 at 12:54 pm
      
      Problem is, these fucking idiots are wholly convinced that the evidence is on their side. They read on the website of Joe Mercola or some other quack huckster that the MMR vaccine causes autism and the CDC is in the pocket of Big Pharma, and that's all they need.
      
      Anti-vaxxism lets people pretend to have expertise without investing the time, effort and money it takes to actually acquire expertise in the relevant fields.
      
      Pretty much every anti-vaxxer, from the wingiest wingnut to the crunchiest superhippie, spends every waking hour hanging out at the corner of Confirmation Bias Lane and Dunning-Kruger Boulevard.
      
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Duke Cox says:

April 6, 2019 at 8:28 am

I really appreciate the changes Govenor Polis and his administration are making on this front.

Is it enough? I am not educated sufficiently on the various issues to make a valid judgement. But any decision to move access to health care closer to those who need it is a good thing.

The conviction and the message that access to health care is a right, not a privilege, is a winning message for Democrats. Because it should be. We all wish the best for Senator Bennet, though some of us may differ with him politically. One thing is certain…his care will be top notch, and it will not bankrupt him and his family.

Can that be said of all the folks living in Commerce City? Or, Clifton? Or Antonito?

I don't think so. But it should be.

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