Colorado Governor Jared Polis and several state lawmakers joined the DU Center for American Politics and the Colorado Sun to discuss their 2020 New Year’s resolutions for state policy on Tuesday, Jan. 14 as part of an event dubbed as a “big ideas” night. Held in DU’s Cable Center and moderated by the Colorado Sun, lawmakers ran the gamut from mental health to student loan debt in a preview of their newest legislative ideas for the 2020 Colorado legislative session that began on Jan. 8.  

DU Chancellor Jeremy Haefner introduced the event, comprised of short pitches from lawmakers, followed by a panel discussion comprised of Seth Masket, director of the DU Center for American Politics and Political Science professor, CBS4 reporter Shaun Boyd and a Colorado Sun moderator. 

“Civic education is absolutely at the core of what we do here at the University of Denver,” stated Chancellor Haefner. In his characteristic high top sneakers, he seemed the perfect candidate to introduce Governor Polis in his bright blue tennis shoes. 

Governor Polis discussed his not just big but seismic idea for 2020: public option for Colorado health care. So what is that? According to the New York Times, the public option can be conceptualized as “a compromise between a single-payer system and our current system, in which only certain Americans now qualify for government-run programs.” The public option is somewhat of a hybrid system that adds another option of government-run health care to citizens that only have the option of private insurance, like people under 65 who do not qualify for Medicare. 

The public option could work in a variety of ways, but in Polis’ vision, he wants “a version of a public option which doesn’t put the state or any public entity in competition with the private sector.” In other words, Polis wants the current insurance companies to run the program, which he claims could eventually generate upwards of 18 percent in savings for Coloradans and small businesses.  

Polis outlined his savings plan by indicating that this would occur by minimizing hospital overcharges, of which Colorado ranks among the top in the nation, and ensuring that refunds from pharmaceutical companies are “deployed to reduce premiums rather than being intercepted by intermediaries.” 

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago, but sometimes what’s old is new,” stated Polis on Tuesday. “Our Congress failed to include this mechanism and promote competition in the Affordable Care Act, although it was in the original House-passed version. We’re now very excited that Colorado and several other states are working at some…model projecting meaning, competition, accountability, transparency, and savings into health care. …No matter where I am in the state, no matter who I hear from – Republicans, Independents, Democrats – I have yet to meet a single voter that says, ‘I don’t pay enough for my health care.’”

If this were to pass, Colorado as a state would begin to designate hospital prices according to if the city is rural or not , the income of the city, and whether the hospital “is part of a larger system or independent.” 

The plan would also ask for extra federal money to assist low-income residents in getting coverage and will be up for voting in this 2020 legislative session. 

Other lawmakers also introduced their plans for the upcoming year. 

Democratic Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, the Democrat from Commerce City, called for a mental health bill that would require all Colorado residents to receive a yearly, 60-minute mental health exam along with their yearly physical. 

“Imagine you go to your doctor’s office, and they say ‘Wow, John… I’ve noticed that your blood pressure is really starting to spike,'” said Rep. Michaelson Jenet. … And then the doctor says, “Don’t worry, when you have a heart attack, give me a call. That, ladies and gentlemen, is our behavioral health care system. It’s a joke.” 

In her plan, Coloradans could, if they opt to, see any kind of mental health specialist without having to pay a copay or deductible every year. 

She voiced her concern over the idea that mental health is only dealt with on a “crisis-by-crisis” basis, and how she wants to reduce the stigma among mental health. 

“I believe that if we start picking out our mental health care provider at the same time we pick out our pediatrician before we give birth to [a] baby, it’s normal,” she stated. 

Sen. Jack Tate, the Republican from Centennial, discussed what he referred to as “a small idea for a big problem” – tuition reimbursement for past student loans. 

Senator Tate’s plan would make it so that companies that already offer tuition reimbursement programs for their employees’ current and future education would be able to offer that same plan for past education and student debt. This program would make it so that this reimbursement would be tax-exempt and apply to Coloradans who work in their area of study at school. 

Senator Tate described his stance, stating, “Colorado can get involved in incentivizing companies to expand their benefits, help their traction and retention of employees, and then, importantly, get more involved in some tax credits, then those tax credits can be matched against larger cash flows but tack the student debt problem.”

Sen. Paul Lundeen, the Republican from Monument, introduced a bill that rewards “highly effective” Colorado teachers with yearly $2,000 bonuses. 

“We should be focused on putting our money where our mouth is. That’s in the classroom and in teacher paychecks…we need to send a signal to teachers that they are a priority. And our best teachers, the ones knocking it out of the park, they should be the first ones in line.”

How would that work? Sen. Lundeen plans to take $50 million from the $14 billion allotted for education in Colorado to fund these bonuses that would benefit around half of Colorado teachers, based on the Senator’s analysis that 47 percent of teachers were valued as highly effective last year. 

Finally, Rep. Yadira Caraveo, the Democrat from Thornton, discussed her plan to introduce a bill to ban all flavored vaping products in light of several vaping-related illnesses across the U.S. and in Colorado in the past six months. 

Rep. Caraveo described flavored vaping products as “targeted toward children,” and used “as a way to addict a new generation.” 

With state legislators stepping up to bat – in brightly colored tennis shoes or not – 2020 is sure to see some significant mobilization in policy and agenda.