Universal Medicare for All bill advances in CO legislature

As health insurance premiums keep rising, Colorado lawmakers are advancing a bill to look at a universal Medicare for All option.

A 2020 report in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds administrative costs for private insurance, and the time doctors spend on billing paperwork, make up over one-third of all healthcare costs in the U.S.

Nathan Wilkes is a board member of with Health Care for All Colorado.

He said he believes the study called for in the bill will confirm previous research showing there is enough money to cover all Coloradans, by removing the middle-man.

"All of the public costs that we are paying, a lot of which are going to insurance subsidies and things like that," said Wilkes, "are more than enough to cover a system where there's a single pipeline."

Insurance industry executives say they've worked to lower administrative costs, and some politicians have argued private companies have better incentives to be more efficient than government services.

But administrative costs for private insurers in the U.S. are nearly six times the costs of Canada's single payer system.

Private insurers also argue they help keep overall costs down, in part by denying claims for procedures they see as unnecessary.

Wilkes said because of the industry's lobbying influence, voters will need to convince lawmakers to ensure all Coloradans can access health care.

"I think people recognize that there's a lot of profit extraction going on by companies that are not delivering any sort of healthcare services at all," said Wilkes, "while their family and friends are having to start 'Go Fund Me's' to pay for their cancer."

According to the Colorado Health Institute, some 265,000 Coloradans had no health insurance last year.

Wilkes pointed out that Medicare's original aim was to eventually extend coverage to all Americans, not just seniors.

"Truth is that universal healthcare is as American as apple pie," said Wilkes. "Guaranteeing healthcare aligns with our nation's core values of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everybody."