We don’t take positions on policy issues that affect Colorado lightly. We gather a broad group to understand the issue, we seek feedback from differing views, we look at the experience of others who have gone before us, we engage our members to ensure we understand the implications of the policy from their perspective and then we make a decision.
As we began to look into Amendment 69, a ballot measure that would raise $25 billion in taxes to create a government-run health insurance system, we took that same approach. What we found as we started talking to leaders from around the state—regardless of political affiliation or even where they stood personally on the idea of a national single-payer health care system—was that there was overwhelming concern about the negative impacts of this proposal on Colorado, our economy, our workers and our smallest businesses.
Last month, we stood with former Gov. Bill Ritter and state Treasurer Walker Stapleton to oppose this amendment. We will work hard to ensure you learn more about this amendment, but with all the ballot issues in November, we will have to work harder than ever to share the facts about Amendment 69 with Coloradans. Toward that end, we have stood up our bipartisan campaign organization Coloradans for Coloradans to defeat this measure. And, we will need your help to be successful this fall.
Here's what we know about this measure:
We can’t afford it. This is a $25 billion tax increase on working Coloradans that establishes a huge new bureaucracy managed by a 21-person elected board of trustees. Our current state budget is $27 billion, so in one single vote we would nearly double government spending for our state—while critical needs like education and transportation still go unmet—and give Colorado the highest state taxes in the nation. This will be funded through a 10 percent tax on every paycheck and a 10 percent tax on non-wage income like pensions.
There are too many unknowns. The fact is we don’t even know what will be covered under this plan. We do know that most Coloradans would lose their existing coverage and have to hope that the board of trustees decides to replicate that level of coverage. Without further detail about what will and won’t be covered, it is impossible for employers or individuals to evaluate their current coverage against what they might get under this new system.
We must learn from others. In 2014, Vermont set out to be the first state in the country to move to a single-payer health care system. And, the state’s governor (who initially championed their single-payer effort) killed the proposal because the financial models were overwhelming. Gov. Peter Shumlin said, "in my judgment, the potential economic disruption and risk would be too great to small businesses, working families and the state's economy."
Nobody knows the full implications of Amendment 69—and that’s in part because we don’t know what procedures and medications will be covered, how providers will respond or what reimbursement rates will be.
We are a state of trailblazers, but this measure is too expensive and complicated for one state to take on—and we risk our health care, income and our economic future on this vague, untested plan. That’s why we’ve already seen leaders, regardless of party affiliation or where they stand on whether the country should move to a single-payer system, join us in opposition of Amendment 69. Please help our effort and get involved by joining the Chamber and Coloradans for Coloradans to defeat Amendment 69.
Kelly Brough is president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
