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3-Part Solution
The solution is to reduce the amount spent on financially inefficient programs (such as corrections), increase revenues by stimulating the state economy, and enforcing streamlined and effective programs to further reduce the waste, fraud and abuse presently draining our health care budget. This is a workable and utterly essential solution. The alternative is to neglect our priorities and most vulnerable citizens.
Raising Quality of Care
The quality of health care is needlessly eroded by misdirected funds and inefficient bureaucratic waste. More of every health care dollar must go to the delivery of quality care, and less to administration of insurance claims and oversight by non-medical personnel. Checkups for early diagnosis and prevention of disease save money and should be made more accessable to Coloradans under state plans.
Many elderly Coloradans are afraid to seek medical care for reasons that are not purely financial. Many fear the loss of dignity and potential abuse of nursing homes. This problem concerns us all, so we need to strengthen the laws that set minimum standards for the care of children and the elderly.
Filling The Gap To Protect You
Colorado's health care budget is presently just under $1.5 billion, merely 20-percent of the total state budget, (approx-imately twice what we spend on corrections). Given the economic pressures created by lower state revenues, many state health care services have been cut or drastically reduced. The state’s public insurance programs include Medicaid and the Child Health Plan Plus, that provide health coverage to low-income, elderly, and disabled Coloradans.
This year, projected revenues of only $6.7 billion leave a shortfall of more than $750 million (some experts estimate the figure to be closer to $1 billion) in lost revenues to the state due to the economic downturn. We must find a solution to reinforce state-provided health protection.
Protecting Children and the Elderly
The importance of providing basic health care coverage to children and the elderly is impossible to understate. Many argue that health care reform that gives a "free ride" to those who are unwilling to work is ethically objectionable, and I agree with this notion. I also seek to protect the values that demand we protect our most vulnerable citizens.
Children and the elderly, unable to work, deserve protection in our society. This is not a free ride—it is investing in ourselves. I do not advocate state-supplied universal health care, but I know we can do better at protecting those who need and deserve to draw on our strength.