May 29, 2009 07:39 PM UTC

The Value of Reform in Colorado

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• by: ranr

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Yesterday, SEIU released a report (PDF) on rising health care costs and the value of reform in Colorado. The facts speak for themselves – in a state like Colorado, health care reform is not just about improving the health and safety of Americans, it’s also a bottom-line, balance sheet issue.  

The rising cost of health care is precisely why we need a public option for health care.

Government, families and businesses large & small stand to save trillions from fixing health care. It will strengthen Colorado’s businesses, help us retain jobs, and provide greater access and choices to citizens in need of care, especially if a public option is present.

Here are some highlights from the report:

On cost & savings: A reformed system will save people over $7,000 in premium & out-of-pocket expenses over the next decade.

• In Colorado, health insurance premiums grew by 74.8%, while median earnings only grew by 15.5%.
• The median yearly wage for Colorado in 2007 was only $30,476, but the average health care premium was $11,878. By this metric, premiums grew nearly 5 times faster than wages.
• This year, 83.3% of Coloradans with health insurance are projected to spend over 10% of their pre-tax income on health care costs.

If this keeps up, by 2016, Colorado’s families will be paying around $25,000 each year – the cost of a new family car. It would mean that 40% of the median household income in Colorado would go towards health care costs.

On the uninsured: There are over 47 million uninsured Americans. Each day, another 14,000 people join their ranks. Because of that, we pay a hidden tax on our insurance premiums of 8% – coming from a failure to cover all Americans. In Colorado, that means that families with insurance pay over $1,000 a year extra on their insurance premiums to help cover the cost of the uninsured.

• Each day, 100 Coloradans lose their insurance;
• As of 2007, Colorado had nearly 175,000 uninsured children, and nearly 1.5 million non-elderly adult Coloradans had no health insurance. Of that number, 83.7% were employed, but either they couldn’t afford their employer’s health insurance plan, or their employer simply didn’t offer coverage of any kind.
• Nearly 90,000 of the uninsured adults were between the ages of 50-64, meaning that nearly 10% of Colorado’s aging adults are uninsured.

On fixing the economy:

We cannot fix the economy without fixing health care. The cost of health care is out of control, and we can do better. We need affordable health care we can count on, and federal action is essential to helping Colorado cope with soaring health care costs.

• In 2007, Colorado’s economy lost as much as $3.9 billion because of the poor health & shorter lifespans of the uninsured. That adds up to $4,825 for each uninsured Coloradan.
• This year, Colorado faces a state budget deficit of $859 million, or 11%. Because of this, the state has imposed a hiring freeze.
• As of 2007, 17% of all state spending in Colorado has gone to Medicaid and SCHIP. $2.6 billion went to Medicaid alone.
• Nationally, health care spending accounts for 16% of our gross domestic product (GDP). That share is projected to nearly double in the next 25 years.

Modernizing our health care system could save us nearly $600 billion in health spending over the next decade and $9 trillion over the next quarter century.

There’s more in the report, which you can download here (PDF). One thing is made clear – the American people deserve action, and action now, on creating an affordable health care system for all.