Proponents of universal health care say they’ve raised the money needed to pay for a study about whether it’s doable, and what the tradeoffs might be, in Colorado.
In May, the governor signed a law to have the Colorado School of Public Health analyze the potential impacts on stakeholders of legislation for a single-payer universal health care system.
But there was a hitch. Due to the state’s budget woes, backers would have to raise the money privately to conduct the study.
Now the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care says they’ve raised, through grassroots philanthropy, the $750,000 needed.
“Coloradans know the health care system is broken. The U.S. is the only industrialized democracy where people die for lack of health care or go bankrupt trying to pay for it,” said Virginia Gebhart, a retired pharmacist who helped with statewide grassroots fundraising, in a statement from the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care.
The foundation spearheaded the fundraising. A spokesperson said six groups belonging to an alliance are also behind it: Arvadans for Progressive Action, Health Care for All Colorado, Health Care for All Colorado Foundation, Together Colorado, Colectivo de Paz and the Colorado Healthcare Coalition.
The group said donations came from more than 150 people statewide, ranging from $5 to $100,000 — both from individuals and some of the organizations in the alliance. It did not name specific donors.
“However, recognizing there’s a problem isn’t the same thing as solving it; the research resulting from this bill will empower Colorado to find a smarter way forward,” Gebhart said.
Universal health care has been studied before
The concept has drawn sharp disagreement over the years. Supporters say such a system would be cheaper and better than what we have. Critics have called universal health care impractical and not feasible and criticized the study as seeking a predetermined conclusion.
A team at the Colorado School of Public Health will conduct the research and deliver a report to lawmakers by December.
“Interesting study, obviously designed to inform future policy decisions about improving the health care system from an affordability standpoint,” said Dr. Glen Mays, professor and Department Chair at the Colorado School of Public Health, in an interview.
“Our goal really is to provide the very best evidence we can to help inform a decision, but not necessarily a position,” said Dr. Cathy Bradley, the school’s dean.
The issue has been studied many times before in Colorado, she said, noting with a laugh that she has a report from 1993 on her desk. One advantage now is that the Colorado All Payer Claims Database captures detailed health insurance payment and health care usage data to help inform the research. Plus, Mays said, computing power, enabling researchers to run models on millions of records, has improved as well.
Lawmakers last year voted, on a mostly party-line vote in the Democratic-controlled legislature, for researchers “to analyze draft model legislation for implementing a single-payer, nonprofit, publicly financed, and privately delivered universal health-care payment system for Colorado.”
Mays said the analysis will look at financing options to cover all Colorado residents, the cost distribution to stakeholders, taxpayers, employers, patients and others. He said it will also examine health outcomes and population health.
Colorado voters rejected one plan
In 2016, advocates got the issue on the state ballot, asking voters to approve Amendment 69, to create a single-payer system.
That measure would have created a first-of-its-kind single-payer plan in the nation. It would have covered all residents through a state insurance program that would compete with private insurance. Through that program, consumers would no longer have paid premiums or deductibles.
That measure failed at the polls, by a 4-to-1 margin, with opponents, including health care and insurance companies, vastly outspending backers.
Supporters of the idea continue to push for reform, with recent national fights over Medicaid and Affordable Care Act subsidies only heightening the desire among Americans and Coloradans, they say, for systemic change.
But already some groups are speaking out against the study. When lawmakers passed and Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill to examine the idea, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce issued a press release saying it opposed the legislation. It argued the commissioned report is intended to have a “predetermined outcome.”