There’s a proposal on the November ballot (Amendment 69) that asks Coloradans to approve a $25 billion tax increase. Are they kidding? Why would anybody vote for that?

For one simple reason: All the independent analyses agree that Amendment 69 would actually save money for nearly every Colorado family and firm. That’s because the amendment creates a new, state-based health plan, ColoradoCare, which would replace the absurdly expensive health care premiums we now pay to out-of-state insurance giants.

Last year, Coloradans paid $30 billion for health insurance premiums. And for 2017, proposed premium increases average 17 percent. Opponents of ColoradoCare (their campaign is funded by those insurance companies) like to talk about the $25 billion tax increase — but for some reason they never mention that it’s far less than what we’re paying already.

The big insurers have been gouging us for years, reducing coverage while raising costs. Amendment 69 would give them an in-state competitor. But lower cost is not the only reason why ColoradoCare is better than relying on the tender mercies of the insurance industry.

The health insurance giants dictate which doctors you can go to. They all designate what they call a “narrow network” of approved physicians. If your doctor didn’t make the cut — and the networks get narrower every year — tough luck. In contrast, ColoradoCare covers every provider in the state, which means you, not the insurance company, can choose the doctor, the chiropractor, the physical therapist, etc.

Every insurance plan dictates which procedures or prescriptions it will pay for. Currently, these rules are made by business executives in Minnetonka, Minn. (United HealthCare), Indianapolis (Anthem Blue Cross), and Bloomfield, Conn. (Cigna). Coloradans have zero control over these distant decision-makers. In contrast, ColoradoCare will be controlled by you; Coloradans will elect their neighbors to serve on the governing board right here in our state.

Finally, ColoradoCare will do something our country should have done long ago. It will provide health care to everybody. Today, more than 350,000 Coloradans have no insurance at all. When those people get sick, they go to the emergency room — the most expensive possible place to provide health care. And since they’re uninsured, all the rest of us get stuck paying their bills.

Wouldn’t it be better if everybody paid for health insurance, and everybody was covered? That’s what Amendment 69 will do. It won’t be free. It will cost $25 billion. But — have I mentioned this? — that’s less than we’re paying now for coverage that’s not nearly as good.

Amendment 69 says that Coloradans can buy health insurance from any company. But the out-of-state insurance giants are terrified of the competition they’ll face. So they are pumping huge sums — more than $3 million so far — into our state to defeat ColoradoCare. Big drug firms and outfits like Hospital Corporation of America (in Nashville) are also major funders of the “no” campaign. It’s a textbook case of outside money trying to buy your vote.

ColoradoCare is based on a clause in the Affordable Care Act called the “State Opt-Out” provision. If any state creates a plan that insures more people with coverage at least equal to a (mid-level) Silver plan under the federal rules, that state opts out of Obamacare — and gets free of the penalties and mandates that Washington imposes on us now.

So Coloradans have a clear choice this fall. A “no” vote on Amendment 69 is a vote to keep the status quo — Obamacare, with 350,000 people uninsured and control of our health care by out-of-state corporate giants. Voting “yes” gives us a plan that we control, that covers everybody, and saves billions. Which makes that “$25 billion tax increase” look mighty good by comparison.

T.R. Reid of Denver is the author of “The Healing of America” and a correspondent for three PBS documentaries on health care.

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