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Amendment 56:
Government Mandated Employer Responsibility for Health Insurance








Summary

Amendment 56 would require every private employer with 20 or more employees to pay 80 percent of the cost of the health insurance for employees and to pay 70 percent of the cost of insurance for employee’s dependents. An employer could choose to pay premiums to a new state authority that would be established by the state legislature. The legislature would also be responsible for determining the types of health plans that must be offered by employers.

Position:  Vote NO
Provided by: Legislative Council of the Colorado General Assembly
Amendment 56 proposes amending the Colorado Constitution to:

  • require private employers with 20 or more employees to either provide health insurance for both employees and their dependents or pay for insurance through a new state authority;

  • limit the amount the employee must pay to 20 percent for employee-only coverage and to 30 percent for dependent coverage; and

  • require the state legislature to implement the measure, including establishing the new state authority and minimum standards for health insurance plans.

Due to the requirement that employers are mandated to pay 70 percent of the costs for family-health coverage, this measure would likely result in discrimination against hiring individuals with families. Businesses are also likely to decrease employees’ wages and other benefits to offset increased healthcare costs.

Economic literature on mandated benefits suggests that single parents and minorities tend to be affected disproportionably when business costs rise and employers cut wages to compensate. This measure would hurt the very people it purports to help.

No other states have a comparable government healthcare mandate.  However, a court has already struck down a Maryland law that would have required private employers with at least 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health insurance benefits.

Tasking our state legislature to be responsible to enact all the laws imposed by this measure, implement its provisions and determine the mandated health plans that must be offered by employers, is adding too much to an already full plate for our elected officials. 








RMFC position:
VOTE XX
Vote NO
RMFC position:
Vote NO