The Colorado Health Services program represents systemic health care reform designed to ensure integration of financing, delivery and administration in order to provide quality health coverage for all in place of our current fragmented, chaotic, profit-centered multiple-insurance model. CHS is a comprehensive, public-payer (insurance), private provider (health facilities, providers) system that permits free choice of providers and hospitals. By eliminating wasteful administrative spending, the program is designed to provide quality, equitable health care access at greatly reduced cost by creating a single, statewide risk pool for all residents. Comprehensive benefits encompass a broader range of coverage than currently available through any single private insurance plan.

CHS administrative savings alone are projected at 15-20 percent of health spending. Additional savings result from elimination of insurance profit-taking, and negotiation of costs for pharmaceutical and durable medical goods. Providing universal access to primary, preventive care avoids resort to higher-cost delayed, crisis emergency room care. The elimination of multiple duplicative insurance paperwork reduces hospital and providers? costs. Treatment instead of imprisonment of many suffering substance abuse or mental illness would significantly reduce prison/jail expenditures. Universal access to continuous health care greatly reduces costs of malpractice premiums and awards.

Key to any successful systemic health care reform is a statewide fully integrated Information Technology network, permitting simultaneous tracking of expenditures, utilization and outcomes, with assessment of best practices and resource utilization to improve quality of care and expedite chronic disease management; and to reward hospitals and providers for excellence. Statewide coordination of public health and infrastructure prevents duplication of services and administrative waste. Accountability and transparency of data facilitates informed health care decisions by all.

Federal, state and local monies now earmarked for health care would be transferred to the CHS Trust, insulated from the general state budget. Waivers would be sought for federal programs (e.g., Medicaid and Medicare). The medical expense portion of liability, Workers? Compensation and automobile insurance would be folded into the program, eliminating administrative and adjudication costs for auto and job-related injuries. Exercising administrative oversight, a governing board representing five state regions would remain accountable to the people. CHS would be operated as a publicly-owned not-for-profit insurance company.

Employers and employees would contribute through payroll deduction or a progressive tax. Health costs for the vast majority will be substantially reduced below current premium and out-of-pocket health expenditures (currently averaging $11,000 per family annually). Divorcing health coverage from employment also frees businesses to better compete in the global marketplace. All institutions, including public education and the state, would realize savings when relieved of responsibility for inflationary health coverage costs. Coloradans will no longer experience threat of bankruptcy due to high medical bills (the cause of an estimated 50 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies), or denial of coverage due to ?pre-existing? health conditions.

Equal access to health care across the state would be facilitated, as providers and hospitals receive the same reimbursement for the same level of care, negotiated annually. Education funding for health care providers and incentives for service in high-needs areas are key features, as is wellness education for the populace and job-retraining for displaced workers.