It's rare for the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Insurance Agents& Brokers, a national association representing the largestcommercial insurance firms in the country, to heavily engage instate initiatives, but we’ve never before seen the calibratedassault that Colorado's Amendment 69 wages on the benefits —and indirectly, the property and casualty — market.

Ballot initiative

This ballot initiative, also known as “ColoradoCare,” would create a single-payerhealth system in the state, and may dissolve the state's market foremployer-provided benefits. The proposal would initially cost thestate $25 billion, doubling the state budget and catapultingColorado to the highest taxed state in the nation. And for allthat, there is no clarity on the coverage options the entity wouldoffer current recipients of employer plans.

Every Coloradan receiving employer coverage would lose theirexisting plan and their abilities to review benefit plan changes oroverride the probable tax increases to continue funding theregime. To make matters worse, it would make Coloradans guineapigs to the decisions of a wildly powerful 21-person board thatwould dictate everything from benefit packages to provider networksand prescription plans. It’s a nearly all-out assault on individualfreedom when it comes to personal health decisions.