Colorado considers single-payer healthcare

Colorado might be the first state to switch its healthcare system to a single-payer model that offers coverage for all citizens, financed by tax dollars. The universal coverage plan would also mean the state would drop out of the Affordable Care Act.

Voters will decide on next year’s ballot.

But Colorado is not the first state to consider universal coverage. In 2011, Vermont passed a law to create a single-payer system called Green Mountain Care, but by 2014, the plan was abandoned because of the tax burden on businesses.

In the ColoradoCareYES plan, businesses would pay new taxes to finance the system, and employees would contribute in payroll taxes. Private health insurers would be the administrators, and there would still be premiums, according to the Associated Press.