Your health care premium will be adjusted based on your income. If you qualify for Medicaid, you will not pay a premium. If you are wealthy, there will be a ceiling on the income you would pay the premium on. Your employer might pay a portion of the premium. The exact percentage has not been determined by the health care economist. When it is determined the information will be readily available.

Medicare is a government program for people 65 and older and people who are disabled. The program has been in existence for 60 years. the administrative cost for Medicare is 2% The administrative cost for private commercial health insurance companies is between 15-20%, The government program is much more effective and efficient than private commercial health care plans

Your current private commercial health care plan is not as comprehensive as the proposed publicly funded privately delivered health care plan for all Coloradans and the premiums will be less because you won’t be paying for unnecessary administrative costs. Even your Medicare plan is not as comprehensive.

Canadians wait to get a knee replaced but they never wait to get medical care when they are having a heart attack. In the U.S. you might get care in the Emergency Room for a heart attack but you might not get a stent if you don’t have insurance coverage or your deductible is so high you cannot afford to pay the deductible. Coloradans are also waiting longer for knee replacements because they need to wait for an operating room to be available before they can get care or wait until the orthopedic surgeon can schedule the procedure based on his or her schedule.

Because someone will help pay for your surgery if you have testicular cancer.

No. Socialized medicine means health care providers are employed by the government like they are in Britain. The Colorado proposal means physicians may remain in private practice. The change will be that there will be only ONE payment source for the physician’s care, a Colorado enterprise owned by the people of Colorado, not a private commercial health insurance company. The Veteran’s medical care is an example of socialized medicine. The physicians who care for veterans are paid a salary by the federal government. Most, if not all, Americans would not consider the Veteran’s Medical services for our veterans to be “unamerican.”

Competition between the private commercial health insurance companies is not controlling health care costs. Competition is a free market concept proposed by Adma Smith in 1776. Competition works to control costs for some services and products but not for health care. You can shop around for the best price to buy the car you want but you don’t have time to shop around when you have a heart attack. You can learn about all the features a new car might have and become knowledgeable about the history of reliability of a particular car, but unless you have a medical degree and specialized in cardiology you probably won’t have all the information you need, you have to trust your cardiologist to recommend the right procedure for you.

The Colorado plan would be designed to provide care where people live because it will be patient-centered not profit-centered. The current way of delivering health care is based on where the most money can be made which is in the urban areas where the most “customers” live.

It will not interfere. However, the coverage will be more comprehensive with the Colorado plan.

Yes, if your doctor continues to remain in private practice. If your doctor retires of course you will need to find another doctor and with the Colorado Plan you will have free choice of doctors who practice in Colorado. You will not be limited to only “in-network” doctors who have an agreement with your private commercial health insurance company like you experience now.

Yes, some people who work for private commercial health insurance companies for health care providers and hospitals will lose their jobs because fewer people will be needed to process claims. There will be a plan to pay for training for people who want to get a new job and need additional training. When Coloradans spend less on a publicly funded plan than they paid for a private commercial insurance plan will free up money in the economic cycle to create new businesses and employ people who have been displaced. For example, some people will be hired to be a medical assistant or a nursing home nurse assistant since there will be more demand for their care because more people will be receiving health care.

No.

That is unlikely because health care economists will calculate how much health care costs in Colorado now and will adjust the premiums to cover those costs with an inflation factor built in to the cost and therefore the premium each of us pays. Also there will be a reserve fund established prior to implementing the Colorado plan to be sure there is enough money to cover expenses if an unforeseen event occurs like a pandemic.

The State plan will allow the health care enterprise to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies.

Taxpayers like you and I already pay for most pharmaceutical research through the National Institute of Health. The pharmaceutical companies do some research but much of their costs are associated with advertising and lobbying.

No, we don’t have the best health care system in the world. We have some of the best health care providers in the world but some of us can’t afford their care. Other Developed countries who all have universal health care have better health outcomes than we do. For example, they have fewer mothers die in childbirth than we do

It fixed some problems but not everything we should fix. It required private commercial health insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions, it gave states permission to expand Medicaid eligibility, and it requires private commercial health insurance companies to cover children up to age 25 with their parent’s or guardian’s coverage. However, it did not control the cost of health care nor did it cover everyone who lives in America. There are still many Coloradans who are un-insured or underinsured.

Yes, however the current political environment will make it unlikely a national plan will be implemented in the near future. It is more likely some States like Colorado will take the lead passing universal health care legislation.

In Canada, Saskatchewan was the first province to have universal health care eventually the entire country created a national plan by going province by province. State by State is the most likely scenario for the U.S.

Mostly because we will avoid the unnecessary administrative cost of our current way of financing health care. In addition, we will save money because people will be treated earlier and in more appropriate medical settings. For example, instead of a Coloradan waiting until they are in a diabetic coma and going to the hospital emergency room for care, they will get regular non-emergent care from their own doctor to manage their diabetes and prevent a diabetic coma.

Some health care providers might move to other States to make more money, but the Colorado Plan would make sure physicians, nurse practitioners, physical therapists in private practice are reimbursed a fair rate for the services they provide. The health care providers in private practice would no longer need to pay additional staff to process claims for a multitude of private commercial health insurance companies. The estimate is that most private physician practices would save approximately $100,000 with the Colorado Plan because they would submit claims to only one payer, the Colorado enterprise, instead of several with different rules and forms to navigate.

Health care providers would serve on a board for the enterprise to advocate for fair reimbursement rates. Medicare rates set by the Federal Government can be augmented by the State to assure providers are fairly reimbursed.

Obviously we would not want to exacerbate the health care provider shortage but rather encourage providers to practice in Colorado because they can focus on providing good medical care not become distracted by the private commercial insurance companies interference in their ability to practice medicine by telling the doctor they can prescribe one blood pressure medicine but not another when the doctor knows the best blood pressure medicine is not on the private commercial health insurance companies list of okay drugs to prescribe.

Yes, the funds would be secure in a enterprise exclusively to provide payment for Coloradan’s health care. The legislature could not borrow from the Health Care Fund to pay for a road or a bridge or anything else.

The Colorado Plan would be overseen by a board made up of health care providers and consumers who are accountable to the people of Colorado to assure administrative costs are held to a low percentage of total costs. Currently your private commercial health insurance company administrators are accountable to their board and stock holders and not to their patients or providers.

Yes, as long as your son or daughter is a Colorado resident.

Yes, as long as your primary residence is Colorado.

You can campaign for and vote for the ballot measure. You can speak to a group like your Rotary Club members, host a neighborhood party and show a documentary like Healing U.S., staff a health care booth at a county fair, write a letter to the editor, and/or canvass.