April 08, 2008 06:53 AM UTC

Addressing Healthcare in Colorado

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• by: DavidThi808

Ok, effectively addressing health insurance in Colorado faces a couple of problems. Namely:

1. When Barack Obama is sworn in next January, one of his first major efforts will be fixing health care at the national level. It will probably be a year from then before things go into effect, but still, in under 2 years anything done here may be made obsolete.
2. There’s no money. Even if for every $1.00 spent by the state on health care it saved residents a direct $2.00, it can’t be done because of TABOR. Again, a delay of 2+ years at a minimum.
3. The Republicans will fight anything that even hints at more government involvement. Yes we have a Democratic majority, but barely.

So… What if we…

Ok, lets call the Republican bluff on healthcare. Lets pass the legislation to make the free market “work” providing people insurance. Some of this has recently been proposed in the state legislature.

Here’s what I think would be needed (please post your additional suggestions):

1. No turning people down for pre-existing conditions, nor pricing insurance higher due to the conditions.
2. The state has an appeals board for refused treatment and can over-rule the insurance companies.
3. The state reviews payment delays and other obfuscation and if it is found to be intentional levies interest at the pay-day loan rate, half going to the healthcare provider and half going to the state.
4. All insurance is totally portable and travels with the individual if they change jobs – including the price staying the same.

Here’s the beauty of this approach. First we can do it, we can do it quickly, and it improves things without a major change in the existing system.

Second, it makes Colorado a test lab for improving things the Republican way. And it will clearly show us some improvements. But it will also clearly show the limitations of this approach. This is incredibly valuable when we start the national discussion on this in January.

Facing the constraints we presently do, I think this may well be the best approach for Colorado today.