ColoradoCare in the Red

The push is on in Colorado for a universal health care system. But can the state afford it?

Amendment 69, which will be on the Nov. 8 ballot this fall, would “replace most private health insurance in the state — including Colorado’s Obamacare exchange — with universal coverage overseen by an elected 21-member board,” according to a report in The Denver Post.

The measure is a “costly, untested, and risky government-run health care plan that would double the size of state government,” said the opposition.

Sure sounds like sunshine and roses, and there are a lot of people fighting for it. But a new analysis shows the system would be in the red to the tune of as much as $8 billion — by the 10th year of the program.

The latest figures come as a chorus of opposition to ColoradoCare is growing. Proposed funding for the system would be through payroll taxes on workers and companies, The Post reported. And while people could opt to keep their current private insurance, they would still have to pay the taxes.

The new report, done by the independent Colorado Health Institute (CHI), predicts the system might break even in its first year and would reduce total health care spending by billions of dollars over its first 10 years, compared to the status quo.

But after that, it would fall “deeper and deeper into the red as the cost of health care climbs over the next decade.”

The measure is a “costly, untested, and risky government-run health care plan that would double the size of state government,” said Coloradans for Coloradans, a statewide, bipartisan organization working to defeat Amendment 69, on its website.

Related: Your Health Care, Illegally Funded

The group maintains that if the law passes, it will devastate business owners and sole proprietors more than anyone. Employers would have a new 6.67 percent payroll tax, and all workers would pay another 3.33 percent payroll tax. The group also states that Amendment 69 would limit health care choice, access, and quality, versus offering Coloradans more.

“A government-run system like this makes Colorado less attractive to providers. We fear our best providers would leave the state and that it would be hard to attract new providers to practice here,” according to coloradansforcoloradans.com.

Amendment 69 supporters paint a much prettier picture. They say earlier analyses predict more people will use the system and that ColoradoCare will actually be able to rein in health care costs, keeping it in the black.

“If CHI had considered increased savings over time and the full Medicaid waiver, it would have found that our model is viable and sustainable,” Ivan Miller, executive director of the pro-ColoradoCare campaign, said in a statement, according to The Post.

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Opponents maintain the report “demonstrates that ColoradoCare is financially unsustainable and will bleed red ink virtually from Day One,” Sean Duffy, a spokesman for Coloradans for Coloradans, said in a statement.