Like so many Bernie Sanders Democrats, governor candidate Jared Polis keeps making promises about health care that aren’t backed up basic math. Recall that the Boulder congressman wants to put all Coloradans on Medicare, except that wealthy Coloradans (like Polis) can always buy their way into a better, private system.
This is the mantra that today animates the progressive/socialist wing of the Democratic Party. Never mind that Canada, where government provides “health care for all,” just set a new record for longest delays as sick patients die while waiting for treatment.
How does Polis propose to pay for this new entitlement which would more than double the cost of state government? Unlike socialist darling Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Polis knows better than to pretend that he can make the numbers add up because they don’t.
While Ocasio-Cortez pretends that $2 trillion in tax hikes will cover $40 trillion in new spending, Polis relies on platitudes, as if certain incantations will magically produce savings if repeated incessantly.
For example, look at what Polis told Westword on “How He’d Implement Universal Care in Colorado.”
- “I’m focused on reducing cost and expanding coverage. Americans in general are being ripped off by health care.”
That’s Progressive doctrine: Big corporations are evil, but big government is good.
- “For health care to work, you have to show people you’re saving them money.”
Then, please, show us!
- “You have to save people money, and you have to expand coverage.”
But how do you plan to do that?
- “The larger the risk pool, the more savings we can pass along.”
Colorado already has over 1 million people enrolled in government health care, but those costs are busting our budget at the expense of education and transportation.
- “Who wouldn’t want to pay 20 percent less each much for health care and get the same or better health care?”
Right, who wouldn’t? But you have no plan to make that happen. Barack Obama told us we’d all save $2,500 a year on our health care and “if you like your health insurance you can keep it.” We all know how that turned out.
Next after interviewing Polis, Colorado Politics summarized his plan. Here are some excerpts (italics added):
“Here’s how Polis says his proposed multi-state consortium could work. . . . (States) could provide health care at a lower-cost by expanding the risk pool to include all their residents. . . .
“The states might also come up with other programs like reinsurance for rural areas….
“After what could be a couple years to put together a plan, the states would submit waiver applications under Obamacare. . . .
“Although it could take years to put in place, the plan could result in a regional single-payer system, or it could turn into the kind of robust public option that Polis and other Democrats have been lobbying for. . . .”
These same reporters who describe Republican candidate Walker Stapleton’s plan as “built from a blueprint of if’s” simply ignore that in their own description of Polis’ plan, they use “could” six times and “might” once.
Polis doesn’t have the slightest idea how his so-called “plan” would work. PolisCare is like Nancy Pelosi’s explanation of ObamaCare: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.”
Remember the old adage: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Surely Coloradans won’t fall for ObamaCare a second time.