On Friday, about 100 Fort Collins residents gathered at the Lincoln Center for an emotional hearing sponsored by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care. More than 30 people got to address the panel about how to craft a health insurance program for Colorado.
Most of those 30+ people that addressed the panel voiced support for the proposal suggesting a single-payer system for Colorado.
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.
Forcing consumers to buy private health insurance to meet their medical needs does not provide universal coverage and is “legalized extortion,” she said.
Those having concerns about a single-payer system expressed their distrust in having the government in charge instead of private corporations.
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. The costs could be prohibitive, she said.
“There are millions of dollars missing in Iraq – who knows where they went. The government is administrating that plan. Do we want them to administer our health care that’s so important to us?”
Of course, I can’t really say that I trust a large corporation any more than the government when it comes to providing health care for its clients. But the discussion just got more lively on the Coloradoan forums when the paper printed its online version of the article about the hearing. If you have some free time and strong opinions about the future of health insurance in Colorado, I’d recommend reading what others have to say and joining in the conversation…
http://forums.coloradoan.com/viewtopic.php?t=13615