BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Coloradoan
KevinDuggan@coloradoan.com
Choking back tears and outrage at the state of health care in the United States, many local residents Friday called for following a different tack in crafting a health insurance program for Colorado.
About 100 people attended a sometimes emotional hearing at the Lincoln Center sponsored by the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform regarding proposals the state Legislature is expected to take up next year.
Of the more than 30 people who addressed panel members, all but a few voiced support for a proposal that would establish a single-payer system for the state’s health-care system.
The current system is geared toward making profits for insurance companies and their shareholders rather than providing care for patients, said Dr. Kathy Waller, of Fort Collins.
“Private, for-profit health insurance served its purpose in the early part of the 20th century, but it is obsolete for the 21st century,” she said.
Forcing consumers to buy private health insurance to meet their medical needs does not provide universal coverage and is “legalized extortion,” Waller said.
A single-payer plan would save the state about $1 billion in health-care costs and provide better coverage, she said.
Many audience members told personal stories of dealing with catastrophic medical problems and near financial ruin. Others said the government should play a role in providing universal care.
Rebecca Renz, of Windsor, said she worries every day about her husband losing his job and insurance. The couple’s 3-year-old daughter has a heart condition that might require a heart transplant.
“Working through the current system is humiliating and painful,” she said. “In our beautiful state, we must be willing to say that health care is not a birthright but a human right.”
But Chris Davies, of Fort Collins, said a single-payer system sounded too good to be true.
Under the proposed single-payer system, the residency requirement would be only three months. The state could be inundated with seriously ill patients who can’t get coverage elsewhere, she said.
The costs could be prohibitive, Davies said.
“There are millions of dollars missing in Iraq – who knows where they went,” she said. “The government is administrating that plan. Do we want them to administer our health care that’s so important to us?”