Colorado to vote on universal healthcare

Colorado will vote next year on establishing a universal, “single-payer” healthcare system after supporters secured enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot. 

{mosads}The Colorado secretary of state on Monday certified that supporters had reached the roughly 100,000 signatures needed to get the proposal on the ballot. 

Under the plan, known as ColoradoCare, the government would provide universal health insurance in the place of private insurance companies. 

It is sure to stoke controversy in part because of its $25 billion price tag, paid for with a new 10 percent payroll tax. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has made setting up a similar system nationwide a key part of his presidential campaign. 

“Colorado could lead the nation in moving toward a system to ensure better health care for more people at less cost,” Sanders said in a statement to The Colorado Independent last month. “In the richest nation on earth, we should make health care a right for all citizens. No one should go bankrupt or skip getting the care they need because they cannot afford it.”

The state could qualify for a waiver from ObamaCare if it enacted the plan.

Sanders’ home state of Vermont has also tried to enact a single-payer system, but the effort is dormant for now, in part because of the price tag.