Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released his plan for health care if elected governor, promising to emphasize primary care and to fight abuses, but offering few details.

Weiser’s plan, released Tuesday, calls for the state to shift investment toward preventive care, build on the Colorado Option and use the courts to challenge health care consolidation and enforce laws limiting surprise medical bills and aggressive debt collection.

Colorado Option health insurance plans have lower upfront costs for primary care and, in some cases, lower monthly premiums than other plan types on the individual marketplace.

“We need to address care upfront to keep Coloradans healthy whenever we can and avoid the high costs and quality-of-life impacts of caring for people once they are sick,” Weiser said in an emailed statement.

Bennet says he’ll seek public option for health insurance if elected Colorado governor

 

The plan didn’t give details on what new versions of the Colorado Option plans might look like, though Weiser said he would work with stakeholders to come up with something more affordable for people earning too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Weiser said he thought a public option likely wouldn’t be feasible, but called for “learning from and working to take action on” an upcoming study of the possibility of a single-payer health insurance system.

Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet are the two leading candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Bennet’s plan, which was also light on details, included a public option for people earning slightly above the cut-off for Medicaid. Both candidates’ plans call for expanding who can buy into the state employee health plan, with the idea that a larger patient pool can negotiate lower health care prices for everyone.

Weiser’s plan summary only included one clear new initiative, related to youth mental health, but didn’t provide enough information to assess what his ideas might cost. He pointed to savings if the state can keep patients healthier — a perennial goal for candidates that often proves difficult to attain.

“Our plan is to focus on the underlying costs of care to reduce the costs to our system, not add to them,” he said.

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