Frequently Asked Questions

Colorado Healthcare Coalition was organized to advocate for universal healthcare, specifically Improved Medicare for All (IM4A) or a similar system at a state level. Having been through a number of attempts to pass IM4A, a healthcare system that would cover everyone, we understand what the special interests (health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains) are going to say about why we should not have IM4A. Of course the things that they say are designed to reduce support for IM4A by spreading misinformation in order to protect their massive profits. We intend to get ahead of that by pointing out how the things they are saying are misleading or completely false.

We also know that universal healthcare at the federal level is not going to happen any time soon. We are working with other states to implement single-state systems because we believe that can happen (and is happening) much sooner. We are quite confident that once several states demonstrate how well universal healthcare works and how much people want it, a federal system will follow. Remember, the US is the only developed country in the world that does not have universal healthcare.

Consider volunteering. You can volunteer by contributing your time, talent, or treasure. If you have time, contact us to find out where we need help. If you have particular talents or skills, we can almost certainly use those. And you can always contribute to our efforts by donating at cohcco.org/donate. Contact us at [email protected]. We need you!!

We spend over twice as much per person as other developed countries. Over $5 trillion each year. (The actual amount in 2025 was $5.7 trillion. That was a 7.4% increase over 2024.) If you think about it for a moment, spending twice as much per person as we would have to, that comes to over $2.8 trillion we are wasting each year! (That’s 2-1/2 times the entire defense budget, wasted.)

It seems like we should, but we don’t! In the study conducted every few years by the Commonwealth Fund, we are consistently last among eleven developed countries.

We also rank last in maternal mortality rate among developed countries and close to last in infant mortality rate. This in the richest country in the world!

Approximately 27 million people did not have any health insurance as of 2024. That is roughly 8% of the US population. We expect that to rise significantly in 2027 due to the decrease in ACA marketplace premium credits passed by Congress.

A 2023 analysis by Physicians for a National Health Program estimated ~195,000 annual deaths attributable to insurance gaps and impaired access to care — not just lack of insurance, but also underinsurance, medical debt, and care denials.

Bankruptcy is when a person loses pretty much everything they have because of debts that they cannot pay. Medical bankruptcy is when that bankruptcy is caused primarily or totally by medical debt.

It is estimated that there are about 1.8 million bankruptcies each year in the United States that can be considered medical bankruptcies.

By the way, there is no such thing as medical bankruptcy in countries with a universal healthcare system!

What we really want is universal healthcare, any system where everyone can get the healthcare they need regardless of how much money they have. Of the 3 ways that universal healthcare is achieved in other countries (government-run healthcare, highly regulated insurance, and single-payer), we think that single-payer makes the most sense for the US. That’s why we are educating people about single-payer healthcare.

No, a single-payer system is not socialized medicine. In a single-payer system, doctors, hospitals, and healthcare providers remain private entities.  The difference with a single-payer system is that there would be a single source of payment to the private physicians and health care entities.  This single source of payment would be a non-profit Colorado enterprise owned by the people of Colorado, and not by the insurance companies.

You could, but why would you? A single-payer system would offer more comprehensive and affordable coverage than private insurance.   The Colorado single-payer system would include dental, vision, hearing, and mental health coverage for a single affordable premium.  Deductibles and copays would be eliminated. In addition, a single-payer system would NOT limit people to narrow networks of providers, as do many insurance companies. 

Under a single-payer system, you would be covered for emergency, life-threatening, or urgent medical care while visiting out-of-state.  In addition, if you live part time in another state, your medical care there would likely be covered, as long as Colorado is your primary residence.

It is quite clear that there is not support at the federal level for Improved Medicare for All (IM4A) at this time. Even many Democrats do not support it. We believe that this is due to the very large amounts that the special interests contribute to politicians’ campaigns. We also believe that if one or more states implement a single-payer system, the success of that system will force national politicians to get on board.

In a single-payer system medical services and products are delivered by doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other medical providers. Each of those providers files claims with a public agency. So the public agency is the “single payer”, but the agency does not run the healthcare system. Your doctor does what is best for you, and the agency pays the doctor.

This is in contrast to the current system where providers typically have dozens or even hundreds of different places to file claims to get paid. You can imagine that the administrative costs associated with that are massive!

At first glance, you might think so. After all, the system would cover more people for more things. But there are also massive savings to be had by eliminating all of the administrative tasks that don’t deliver any healthcare. Every provider in the country who accepts insurance has to spend large amounts dealing with the hundreds of insurance companies and the thousands of different policies. In a single-payer system most of this goes away because the system for filing for payment is simple and straightforward.

Every legitimate study that has been done to compare the cost of single-payer to what we spend today shows that single-payer would not cost more; and almost all of those studies show that single-payer would cost substantially less. A study commissioned by the Colorado legislature comparing 3 ways of paying for health care showed that single-payer in Colorado would cover everyone and save billions the first year!