“A new health care tax? Aguilar needs to give it a rest. She’s been pushing this unpopular idea for years. Coloradans need to know who is supporting this trojan horse proposal. The worst of the proposal is that it would exempt future revenues from this new tax from TABOR. A board would then be able to crank up taxes on Coloradans at their own whim.” – Jonathan Lockwood, executive director of Advancing Colorado.

While Initiative 20 proponents and the ColoradoCareYES campaign are ramping up their campaign to foist a trojan horse tax hike on Coloradans, supporter state Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, has been rather quiet. 

Aguilar killed her own universal health care bill during the 2013 legislative session because it was so unpopular. That bill was charged as being a “$16 billion dollar tax increase,” while still large pales in comparison to the newer $25 billion price tag that’s been estimated this year.

“A new health care tax? Aguilar needs to give it a rest. She’s been pushing this unpopular idea for years. Coloradans need to know who is supporting this trojan horse proposal. The worst of the proposal is that it would exempt future revenues from this new tax from TABOR. A board would then be able to crank up taxes on Coloradans at their own whim.” – Jonathan Lockwood, executive director of Advancing Colorado.

Analysts have debated in the past about the ability to truly figure out cost projections. According to CBS-4, Aguilar’s universal health care plan was so unprecedented and sweeping that cost projections weren’t available.

Aguilar is known for her extremism on health care and even ran a bill that attacked free standing emergency rooms. The measure, Senate Bill 13-016, caused outrage among Colorado free market advocates for its attack on innovation and competition in health care.

Most reasonable people know that when there is competition – prices decrease. We should be celebrating competition and innovation in health care not demonizing it. The market is better equipped to deliver quality care, at affordable rates to people and so we shouldn’t be looking to government to save the day.

ColoradoCare would be financed by taxes on Coloradans’ incomes, including a Health Care Premium Tax on payroll and non-payroll income collected by the Department of Revenue.

The proposal asks for the revenues from the initiative be exempt from TABOR, and board members, which would initially be appointed, would vote on a Health Care Premium Tax increase.

http://www.advancingco.org/media/blog/coloradocare-is-a-25-billion-trojan-horse-2/