ANDERSON

economic security, mental health and civic engagement issues.

HB 1209 asks the Colorado School of Public Health to study the impacts of a universal health care system in Colorado to individual and community health and to the health care workforce.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Andrew Boesenecker (Fort Collins) and Karen McCormick (Longmont) in the House and Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (Longmont) in the Senate. All are Democrats.

I talked with Boesenecker over the phone as he drove home after lengthy Republican filibustering of bills over an exhausting couple of days. The Democrats have a solid majority in the legislature but the Republicans are hoping to slow things down. Boesenecker is majority co-whip.

Boesenecker is a musician and former public school music teacher. He is also a former Lutheran pastor. He was a chaplain at the Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley and saw people in the burn unit, intensive care and pediatrics. He had “countless conversations” with patients who were anxious about the cost of their health care and their ability to pay for essential procedures.

Boesenecker said HB 1209 is an outgrowth of a 91-page study in 2021 by the Colorado School of Public Health which concluded that a publicly financed and privately delivered system could provide health coverage to every resident, increase employment and improve overall population health. At the same time, we would spend billions less than we are spending now on health care. Such a system is called single payer.

The state legislature commissioned the study in 2019 which had a task force with bipartisan membership appointed by the governor and both parties’ leadership. Health care should be a human right and a public good rather than as a commodity. Many millions of people are driven into poverty each year because of health care costs. Time for Big Change.

RE: ‘SWIMMING WITH FOREVER CHEMICALS’

Fishing, hunting, and trapping — stalking and lying in wait with the intention to kill living, feeling individuals — are crimes against life and should be abolished.

Regarding the subheading,

“Colorado’s river fish are contaminated — but the news isn’t all bad,” the news of PFAS is indeed “all bad” for each and every fish, as well as other living organisms.

In thought, word, and deed, may we, individually and collectively, accord each and every sentient being equal consideration, respect, and, yes, rights, first and foremost the right to live free from human-inflicted harm and death. Such a paradigm shift offers us the opportunity to, momentby-moment, person-by-person, create a kinder, more just world for all.

— Mark Wiesenfeld/Boulder