Amendment 69: ColoradoCare is a No Go

Colorado Voters vote against amendment 69 the universal health care plan that would replace most private insurances with a state-ran, single-paid insurance known as ColoradoCare.

As of November 9th, 2016, ColoradoCare had 80% of the vote going against the amendment to change the health care policy in Colorado. The amendment had a 1,851,435 voter turnout, those of which were for keeping private health care the same.

Although ColoradoCare was made to reduce the amount paid in taxes over the year, there were many flaws.  For example: with the amendment, twenty-one Colorado trustees would be elected to oversee what medication and medical equipment is used. This could severely limit what doctors are able to do.  Should amendment 69 have passed, some doctors who wanted a say in what they give to their patients would have to move their practice elsewhere, which takes away from those patients who need those doctors. The loss of doctors and classification within would allegedly have been detrimental to Colorado health care, so the amendment wasn’t ratified. 

Another downside to the amendment that helped persuade voters was the fact that there was a rise on how much employees and employers had to pay for healthcare that they didn’t have a say in. For employees there was a raise of 3.33 percent on payroll tax; for the employer it would increase 6.67 percent, totaling a ten percent increase in payroll taxes. On top of this, self-employed workers would be forced to pay the whole ten percent. The rise in payroll tax could have made small business owners move, limiting Colorado’s economy.

Colorado was correct on voting this amendment down, for the benefit of doctors, business owners, and the average citizen all over the state.