Health care chasm

Ritter, Beauprez worlds apart on how to improve system

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, August 25, 2006

The two main candidates for governor of Colorado offered dramatically different plans to deal with health care Thursday, with Democrat Bill Ritter calling for swift action to extend health insurance to all Coloradans and Republican Congressman Bob Beauprez embracing a more measured approach.

Beauprez and Ritter debated at a forum sponsored by Children's Hospital before a standing-room-only crowd that included many hospital employees.

Almost half the patients at Children's are either uninsured or on Medicaid. Ritter said that more than 770,000 Coloradans - including 180,000 children - have no health insurance, and he vowed to convene a panel of representatives of business, labor, hospitals and insurers to find a way to extend health insurance to everyone.

"Every citizen should have access to basic health care," said Ritter, who pointed to a plan for universal insurance adopted in Massachusetts as a possible model here.

Beauprez agreed that the number of uninsured was becoming a crisis, but he advocated a less-sweeping approach, calling for an expansion of the state's insurance plan for low-income children and for streamlining Medicaid, the primary source of health insurance for the poor.

"It's vital that children get enrolled," Beauprez said. Reducing bureaucracy in Medicaid could free up more funds to pay doctors and improve care, he added.

Colorado ranks as one of the worst states in the country for several measures of children's health, including the immunization rate and the number of low-birth-weight babies, which Ritter called "shocking statistics" that require immediate action. He called for the state to identify areas with large numbers of unimmunized children.

Beauprez advocated "community partnerships" between the state and churches, foundations and other private groups to deal with low-birth-weight babies.

"Community partnerships will dramatically reduce this problem," he said. "I think it's one of the biggest tragedies in Colorado."

Ritter criticized Beauprez for not backing efforts to boost funding for children's health care in Congress, saying it showed a lack of concern.

Beauprez said he had supported funding for the Fitzsimons medical campus and adding prescription- drug benefits to Medicare. He also noted that Ritter - a former Denver district attorney - had never had to cast a vote involving health care.

"I've been in the arena of public policy for health care, not on the sidelines," he said.