Roger Wilson for Colorado
House District 61

Healthcare in Colorado

"Health reform makes health care more affordable, holds insurers more accountable, expands coverage to all Americans and makes our health system sustainable." — White House Website

I believe we are individually better off and our kids are safer when our neighbors are healthy and our society in general is healthy.

Our businesses are better off with a healthy work force and when employees no longer fear the loss of insurance when changing jobs. Small business in particular will benefit from the new insurance pools, which will allow individuals and small groups of employees to attain lower rates formerly only available to large company employees.

Although the new national healthcare program will benefit our economy in the long run and individuals in the short run, we must take great care with Colorado's implementation over the next two years to minimize the paperwork burden to both the insured and to caregivers.

Costs: Based on OMB calculations, there will be no significant rate increases for the additional coverage. Current rate increases are primarily because of rising healthcare costs, not because of the new healthcare law which is not even in full effect yet. The new law is expected to reduce the national deficit by one trillion dollars in the next decade!

As your representative I will:

• Work to simplify paperwork requirements for the current healthcare reform plan.
• Support a system to identify patterns of excess on the part of individual patients or caregivers. While extending care to all citizens and reducing emergency room costs, we must assure taxpayers and insurance providers are supporting only legitimate claims.
• Support single payer legislation. It makes economic sense and reduces the paperwork burden on business and hospitals.
• Support legislation to allow perscription drug bargaining by any government or private group.