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November 10, 2015 at 12:57 PM
Activists in the Centennial State have gotten more than the 100,000 signatures needed to put an initiative on the ballot next year to establish a single-payer universal health care system in the state. This comes three years after voters approved a ballot initiative that made Colorado the first state (along with Washington state) to legalize recreational marijuana.
If approved, the new system would create a state health care cooperative financed entirely by tax revenue. It would replace or at least significantly marginalize the private insurance industry in Colorado and scrap the state insurance exchange set up by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The station also found the tax would amount to $26 out of every bi-weekly paycheck for a worker making $20,000 a year; $64 for one making $50,000 a year and $192 for one making $150,000 a year.
Like Social Security, income above a certain level –– $350,000 for single filers and $450,000 for married couples –– would be capped. That’s somewhat of a surprising twist, given that many liberal leaders see the cap on Social Security taxes as one of the program’s flaws.
The ballot initiative spells out an entirely new government entity that would run the massive new health care program. A board, composed of officials elected by voters in 21 districts across the state, would be in charge of raising taxes to fund the system.
