By Anthony Hartsook | Commentary, Colorado Politics
Winter is here, and the dualistic beautiful and brutal nature of this season can result in a lot of unexpected trips for medical care. From accidents on icy roads to collisions on crowded slopes, people need to know they can count on their health insurance to cover the care they need. Accessible health care is often an incredibly serious matter — it is not something to experiment with. Yet, that’s precisely what the state government-controlled Colorado Option does: it treats Coloradans’ access to high-quality health care as a socio-economic laboratory experiment, rather than building on tried-and-true policies.
Democratic legislators hastily pushed through the Colorado Option in 2021 with promises of greater consumer choice and lower premiums. Yet three years later, the scheme has failed to deliver on either promise, of choice or affordability. A new study reveals the Colorado Option has not only failed to meaningfully decrease consumer premiums, but all it has decreased is options for coverage. The data shows the vast majority of Colorado Option plans did not meet the premium reduction targets set by the statute. This means for enrollees seeking bronze and silver plans (those most commonly sought), the non-Colorado Option plans were the most affordable option on the market. One of the key assurances by supporters of the Colorado Option was it would lower premiums, but clearly, that has not happened.
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Anthony Hartsook serves House District 44 in the Colorado General Assembly.
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