Health Care and the Role of Personal Responsibility

Today the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and while that is a pivotal milestone in U.S. health policy we must not think that we have somehow solved health care issues. The politics of health care will remain heated and there are more long-term solutions that are less controversial that we need to consider.

There is a great deal of friction when we point to personal responsibility for health as a factor in health care policy. Wellness and disease prevention need to be at the forefront of Colorado's health policy and we cannot hand down government mandates to individuals to address personal choices. Although there are circumstances that make it harder for many people to make good individual choices with regard to health habits we should look at wellness in our health care policy as leadership by example instead of government intrusion.

What I mean is that Colorado's government must work creatively (not something any government is particularly good at) to address wellness. Reducing the costs of compliance with medical directives, educating the public on existing programs and services, encouraging better disease prevention policies, better urban planning, and incentivizing healthy lifestyles will pay dividends for the state.

Colorado must also do more to encourage regular preventive care and wellness exams; we must also work to establish good preventive care habits from infancy to adulthood. To lead by example we should work to incentivize and reward personal wellness within the framework of our state's massive public employee health care benefits programs.

Our motivation for proactive health care policies should come from two sources: (1) it is the right thing to do and shows that we are an efficient, innovative government and (2) we will save money. By preventing diseases and promoting wellness there will be less drain on our health care system for treatment of things like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, strokes and numerous other conditions that are avoidable through long-term wellness.

Health care policy deserves continued attention. Whether you felt like the Supreme Court's decision today was a victory or a defeat, we cannot afford to lose focus on these issues.

Crossing that bridge now...not when it crumbles beneath us...

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) over 52% of Colorado’s state highways are rated in “poor” condition, up from just 40% in 2006. While that may not seem like a striking figure consider this: 33% of our highways have deteriorated so badly they need $8.6 billion for full reconstruction. In an already tight state budget we need to address our infrastructure needs sooner rather than later so that we invest in Colorado instead of shelling out billions just to repair it.

In Larimer County alone we have 43% of our state highways, about 316 miles worth, rated in poor condition. We also have about 10% of our state highways rated as being too congested for their vehicle loads.

None of this is particularly riveting until you start looking at the damage we are doing to Colorado by delaying answers to our current and future infrastructure needs. CDOT estimates that, under current funding, in the next 25 years we will only increase our lane miles by negligible amounts, far less than even 1%. Meanwhile we will increase our population by 50% and increase our demands on the state highway system by 61%. That means we will not have the funds necessary to pay for the demands on state roads, but we will nonetheless overwork them. When we place burdens on state infrastructure that it is not designed to withstand we also deteriorate roads and bridges more quickly; this becomes the worst kind of double-edged sword for the state: we do not adequately fund our infrastructure development only to find that the costs of maintaining it become extraordinary.

If you are looking for an even more alarming number, CDOT has identified about 750 rockfall sites that threaten motorists around the state, a problem unique to states with mountainous regions. CDOT only has funding to provide mitigation (nets and planned blasts) for about five of those locations each year.

Over the next 10 years, just to reach a moderate level of infrastructure quality for bridges, pavement, and maintenance, we need to come up with $390 million/year, or $3.9 billion over 10 years, just to keep Colorado from looking like a zombie movie.

None of this includes what we need for snowplow removal, preparing the Front Range corridor for the needs of I-25 and I-70, or CDOT operating in a state that routinely sees blizzard conditions and has the highest average elevation of any state in the Union.

There are ways to fix this problem but the worst thing we can do is wait. If we wait we will not have to spend money now - even though we are delaying projects that do need funding this instant – but that just means we will have to spend even more later than if we behaved responsibly today.

How to do better:

Because we have not updated our fuel taxes in twenty years we are effectively bringing in about 42-cents on the dollar for infrastructure spending compared to the early 90s. In addition, tax revenues slated for infrastructure are dependent upon the number of gallons sold and not the fluctuating price of fuel, so when we spend money to encourage alternative-fuel vehicles and carpooling we are inadvertently making the infrastructure problems more difficult to solve.

For that reason, and many others, we must support changing Colorado’s gasoline taxes to be based on the price of fuel and not the amount sold. Making gas taxes proportionate to gas demand will have the rare quality of pleasing both liberals and conservatives, to say nothing of moderates.

For conservatives: proportional fuel taxes do not engage us in social engineering or burden families or businesses that consume more fuel.

For liberals: proportional fuel taxes do not punish the state for encouraging sustainable transportation.

For moderates: Colorado will be able to pay for its needs and not waste money in the future, our infrastructure will be competitive, and our state’s roads will not become a disaster zone.

We avoid debating issues like this because there are more controversial topics we want to discuss…we must make procrastination from our state legislators a controversial topic because right now we are giving them license to delay until our only option will be to do too little, too late.

High Park Fire

Please routinely check the Coloradoan list of ways to help those affected by the High Park Fire.

Nominated for the Colorado Senate!

On June 11th we received certification of our nomination to Colorado Senate District 14. This is the independent candidate's equivalent to winning a primary. We are all very excited and are looking forward to the general election.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible!

Op-Ed in the Coloradoan: Do not extend term limits for Fort Collins City Council

Follow this link to an op-ed listing a few reasons why we should not extend term limits for the Fort Collins City Council.

Behind the scenes blooper...

I do not like getting my photo taken so naturally I decided to run for public office... in the meantime we needed a new campaign photo and so I reluctantly took to the apple tree in our backyard and let my wife snap away. Along with a new photo the highlight is really this photo of our younger dog, Winter, providing a little photo blooper for us.

Hard hitting politics here I know but it's too cute not to share.