(The Center Square) – Another attempt by Colorado legislators to pass a bill for an analysis of a single-payer health care system is under scrutiny by a free-enterprise think tank.
“The decision to even study a single-payer model for Colorado should not be taken lightly,” Dr. Reggie Washington, an author of the report “Key Questions for Universal Payer” published by the Common Sense Institute, said in a statement. “Colorado voters already rejected the idea of this reform, and greater efforts to regulate provider payments through government price caps will have large implications for access and quality. Key questions must we weighed if this debate proceeds.”
Last year, House Bill 23-1209 made it through the Senate Committee on Appropriations as the session ended. It would have provide $306,772 to the University of Colorado’s public health school to analyze model legislation and was sponsored by Reps. Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins, Karen McCormick, D-Longmont, and Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder.
This session, House Bill 24-1075 was introduced in the Senate this week and referred to the Health and Human Services Committee for a hearing on Thursday. McCormick, Boesnecker, Lewis and Sen. Janice Marchman, D-Boulder, are sponsors of this year’s bill.
The bill would require the Colorado School of Public Health to “analyze draft model legislation for implementing a single-payer, nonprofit, publicly financed and privately delivered universal health-care payment system for Colorado that directly compensates providers.” The report would be required by Dec. 31, 2025.
The bill’s fiscal note shows an appropriation of $241,182 is required for the upcoming fiscal year and $115,367 in the following fiscal year to fund the effort. A group consisting of members of the General Assembly, state agencies and various stakeholder groups would be created for the project.
The 11-page report criticizes a proposal for a study without identifying the scope of the study. It also questions the premise of making Colorado the first state to establish a publicly funded single-payer system.
“Conducting in-depth research into the costs/benefits and tradeoffs of complex and major legislative reforms is a worthy effort,” according to the report. “However, for a publicly funded study to shed light on the correct policy path forward, it should start with a scope of work that allows for full exploration of intended and unintended outcomes.”
The report submits three questions to be answered as part of the debate. It advocates for a review of how the single-payer system would ensure quality of care, the system’s financial stability and the actual cost to Coloradans.
“Reducing payments in the healthcare system through price controls without decreasing the underlying cost of care will lead to a decrease in the quality and scope of services provided in Colorado,” CSI said. “Another study to examine the financial and economic impacts of establishing a first-in-the-nation, state-level, single-payer health care system should not begin with the disputed premise that consumer savings are foregone, or that more substantive true system-wide cost savings cannot be achieved by other incremental reforms.”
