Healthcare

Colorado is going through a process to come up with a silver bullet plan to cure our health care challenges. Governor Ritter appointed one of his many blue ribbon commissions with the charge to make a recommendation of "a plan" to him and the legislature to consider in January. He may be wise to take a close look at the plan already developed by the new Republican Governor-elect in Louisiana.

If press reports are to be believed, then it looks like the Colorado fix is already in for a universal coverage, single payer system (i.e. Hillary-Care). Majority Leader for the Senate, Ken Gordon (D-Denver) as reported in the Rocky Mountain News believes the matter is settled and single payer is the way to go.

I have an instinctive distrust that any singular government generated and directed program is going to be the best choice for all 770,000 Coloradans the Governor says are uninsured, and I sure don't think government is better at deciding for families than they would be if given the chance to decide for themselves.

In the October issue, A Line of Sight offered some of our thoughts on what could be done to improve affordability and access of health care. As one of our readers noted the ideas we proposed were not original. That was never our contention. With 50 states to study and an unlimited number of good ideas already in operation or developed, I've long contended the first order of business should be to survey the field and adopt the best, and claim it as our own in Colorado. As you'll soon see, the Jindal plan borrows liberally from the ideas and experiences of other states, too.

On October 27 Louisiana elected Bobby Jindal to be their next Governor. Though just 38, Jindal is already remarkably accomplished. He's a Louisiana native and graduate of Brown University and Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He's quite proud of the fact that he turned down admissions to medical and law school from both Harvard and Yale. Just two years after returning from graduate school at Oxford he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. In 1998, he was appointed Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare by Senator John Breaux (D-LA) and Cong. Bill Thomas (R-CA). He returned to Louisiana in 1999 to accept an appointment as President of the University of Louisiana System, which includes eight institutions and is responsible for the education of 80,000 individuals at any given time.

In 2004, Jindal was elected to Congress from Louisiana's first district, and won re-election in 2006. He quickly established himself as a leader and one of the brightest and most capable members in Congress, particularly on issues of health care reform and education.

Bobby narrowly lost his first bid for Governor in 2003 to Kathleen Blanco, who later received tremendous criticism for mishandlings related to the Katrina disaster. Blanco choose not to seek a second term in 2007, and Jindal was elected by an overwhelming margin.

Jindal's Health Care Plan for Louisiana

Louisiana is like most states in that they have a number of challenges to address to provide access and affordability to health care for their citizens. Only the challenges for Louisiana are worse than most. According to the United Health Foundation they rank 50th in their Healthy State Rankings. They rank 48th or lower for obesity, infant mortality, cancer fatality, and premature death. Uninsured make up 17% of the state's total population, but 24% of adults are uninsured.

In case you are curious, Colorado ranks 16th in the same 2006 United Health Foundation study.

Of the many such policy briefs I have reviewed, I believe Jindal's is the most complete I have seen. A link to the entire plan is provided here in sincere hope that our Colorado elected officials, government staff, and those involved and interested in this most important issue will take time to study it. The recommendations Jindal makes for Louisiana will not necessarily apply exactly to Colorado. But, they should stimulate broad thought about real systemic reform that will make a real difference. That difference should be for the benefit of individual citizens and families. It should not be better just for an election official or bureaucrat wanting to brag about some slight statistical difference, or for an insurance company that benefitted from the windfall of a new government program.

Jindal's plan is based on common-sense. It is free-market driven, and it empowers people to make their own decisions, not government. The very first tenet of his Action Plan is "Move Away from the One Size Fits All System". I fear in Colorado, the decision may have already been made to move us in exactly the opposite direction.