Coloradoan single-payer - again!

Fort Collins' is the real deal. The progressive community likes to say that while other progressive places in Colorado (no names...) do a lot of talking, the progressives in Fort Collins actually get things done.

I gotta admit, I see proof of it on a daily basis. Here's yet another single-payer column in The Coloradoan, their paper -- this one by G. Richard Dunn. He writes:

The potential national savings has been confirmed recently at our own state level; the Colorado 208 Health Care Commission report is complete and confirms there could be a major savings in health-care costs for Coloradans. The stated charge to the commission was to make a recommendation of health care for all Coloradans and to reduce health-care costs. The good news is that one of the recommendations does exactly that! The bad news is several politicians have already responded that while it might save our residents money, we need to carefully study the issue because it might raise taxes.

The commission retained an independent cost expert and the expert confirmed that 100 percent of Coloradans, including the 800,000 presently uninsured, could be covered and still enjoy an annual savings of $1.4 billion. The commission has forwarded its findings to the Legislature.

If the Legislature and the governor will read carefully, they will find there was a great deal of public and professional support across the state during the hearings for the "Colorado Health Services Plan (single payer)."

True. The 208 Commission held hearings across the state, and they heard again and again from single-payer supporters. Some of the commissioners -- and Colorado pols -- thought that Health Care for All Colorado must have sabotaged the hearings, filling them with our members.

In fact, we'd never heard of most of the people who showed up. There's a groundswell of support for single-payer, not just in Colorado but across the country.

I'd say it's past time for the insurance industry to bring out their big guns, and start running ads on how horrible health care is outside the U.S. They seem to be counting on the Democratic politicians to bring about mandates for people to buy their crappy product. They may be reassessing that now that it's failed in California.