It's rare for the Washington, D.C.-based Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers, a national association representing the largest commercial insurance firms in the country, to heavily engage in state initiatives, but we've never before seen the calibrated assault 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-payer health system in the state, and may dissolve the state's market for employer-provided benefits. The proposal would initially cost the state $25 billion, doubling the state budget and catapulting Colorado to the highest taxed state in the nation. And for all that, there is no clarity on the coverage options the entity would offer current recipients of employer plans. 

Every Coloradan receiving employer coverage would lose their existing plan and their abilities to review benefit plan changes or override the probable tax increases to continue funding the regime. To make matters worse, it would make Coloradans guinea pigs to the decisions of a wildly powerful 21-person board that would dictate everything from benefit packages to provider networks and prescription plans. It's a nearly all-out assault on individual freedom when it comes to personal health decisions.

Eviscerate private workers' comp industry

On top of all this, it includes language — which isn't getting much attention in the media — that would also rid the market of workers' compensation insurance. If passed, ColoradoCare would also encompass the workers' compensation marketplace — eviscerating the private industry.

The safety policies and procedures that are put in place by companies across Colorado to mitigate risk, avoid accidents and benefit consumers would all be jeopardized by Amendment 69. All Colorado residents would be subject to the single-payer system irrespective of the location of corporate headquarters. Its passage would have a detrimental effect on the risk mitigation strengths that the Workers' Compensation market brings consumers.