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Soon, There Will be No Colorado Option

Soon, There Will be No Colorado Option

August 23, 2023

Soon, There Will be No Colorado Option

In addition to guest editorials submitted to individual newspapers and online news sites for their exclusive consideration, NFIB Colorado on occasion will transmit an article for free use by any media or as use as background material for any related stories reporters might be working on.
Soon, There Will be No Colorado Option
By Tony Gagliardi Representatives from two business groups recently took to the opinion section of The Colorado Sun to argue, supposedly on behalf of small businesses, for more muscular enforcement of the state’s health care program, Colorado Option. They even went as far as to accuse health insurers, brokers, and hospitals of “not making good faith efforts to adhere to and lower healthcare costs.” The authors claim in the first paragraph that the Colorado Option is embraced by the small business community. This is not entirely true. The public option most definitely does not have the support of all the Main Street business groups. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is the single largest small business advocacy organization in the country, and although it is not the only small business association, it is the only one comprised entirely of small business owners who pay annual dues to belong and centers its federal and state lobbying positions based on what its members tell it, through regular balloting, are important to them. NFIB-member small business owners have been resolutely opposed to single-payer health care, which is what the public option is by incremental means. This is an issue small business owners know better than anyone. For 40 years, NFIB members have cited the rising cost of health insurance as their number one concern. Small business owners do not benefit from, nor do they support, a one-size-fits-all. They support solutions that empower them and their employees with greater choice and control and access to affordable, flexible, and predictable health coverage options. When NFIB balloted its Colorado members on Amendment 69 in 2016, which would have established a financing system for single-payer health care, 98% of small business owners were opposed to it, something nearly 80 percent of their fellow Coloradans who voted against the ballot initiative agreed with them on. When last asked on their federal ballot, NFIB members still opposed a single-payer system by 75%. As NFIB’s Colorado state director, I vigorously testified in opposition to the public option, warning it would put unelected bureaucrats in a position to manipulate the private health care insurance markets in a way that would eventually force as many Colorado families as possible into a new government-controlled, health-insurance system. This would be achieved by the required rate adjustments outlined in SB21-1232. Private carriers, I warned, would reach a time when their ability to compete with the Colorado Option would become impossible. So, what has happened to the insurance market for small-business-owning individuals and small business groups since Gov. Jared Polis signed HB21-1232 into law a little over two years ago? Four health insurers (Humana, Bright Health, Oscar Health, and Friday Health Plans) have called it quits in Colorado. “Critics of the Colorado Option, the state-designed health insurance plan, have claimed mandates imposed on health insurers are forcing some out of the Colorado market,” reported Colorado Politics. Brace for more departures. Leading off the official Colorado Option website is this cheery notice with its rich potential for an old-fashioned Maoist public-shaming spectacle, “Starting for plan year 2024, the Commissioner has more authority to keep plans accountable to lowering premiums on Colorado Option plans. Colorado Option plans that can’t meet their premium reduction targets may be brought to a public hearing.” In testimony before Congress, NFIB provided nine recommendations for reining in health-care costs to get health coverage into the hands of those without it and to makes sure those with it can keep it. A Colorado Option is all you’ll have when private insurers are no longer around, which, I suspect, was the plan all along. What supporters of a single-payer health-care system could not achieve with Amendment 69, they are now fighting for incrementally, one step at a time. Instead of a government takeover, communities across the country benefit from keeping what works in our system and fixing what’s broken while empowering Americans with greater control over their health coverage decisions. ### Tony Gagliardi is Colorado state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). NFIB Colorado State Director Tony Gagliardi
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