Sen. Bernie Sanders visited the University of Colorado Boulder Monday, Oct. 17 to rally supporters for Amendment 69, otherwise known as ColoradoCare.
It was a cold and windy afternoon, but Farrand Field was packed. People began to gather around the podium as early as 4 p.m. Some were covering themselves with blankets — others were holding up posters with “Let’s try 69” or “Team Yes” written on them and others were simply patiently waiting for the action to start.
This November, the people of Colorado will have the opportunity to vote on Amendment 69, which would replace the existing Obamacare health plan and provide “comprehensive, quality, accessible, lifetime health care for every Colorado resident,” according to the ColoradoCare website. There are legitimate concerns against the proposal, including its impact on the state economy and whether the plan could actually work.
Claire Sava was one of the many Amendment 69 supporters present at the rally.
“We should treat health care as something everyone deserves as opposed to a privilege, especially considering we are the most powerful country in the world,” Sava said.
Sava graduated from the University of Denver last year and is currently planning to go into the field of medicine, but she fears that the current system is not taking the necessary means to protect every American citizen.
The Affordable Care Act, more popularly referred to as ObamaCare, was intended to provide the American population with access to affordable and high-quality health care. Many of its critics argue that these promises have not been met, and the program will almost certainly have to change in the near future in order to continue.
“A lot of people under ObamaCare ended up under-insured,” said Anita Lynch, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention who supported Sanders. “Everybody was required to be insured but many of them were under-insured, so they ended up with high deductibles and high premiums … With this one, there will be no deductibles.”
After several introductory speakers, including Colorado state Rep. Joseph Salazar, state Rep. Jonathan Singer and state Sen. Irene Aguilar, the crowd was ready for Sanders to make an appearance. Loud cheers and applause were heard as he approached the public and began his inspirational and assertive speech.
“In this moment in American history, these very difficult days, our job as a people is to think big, not small,” Sanders said. He continued to say that the job of the American people is to fight for climate change and demand better education.
Sanders declared that insurance companies have spent millions of dollars trying to make people vote no on Amendment 69.
“But this is what they will not tell you: They will not tell you that in Colorado today, or in Vermont, people get sick and die because they don’t go to the doctor when they should because they don’t have any health insurance,” Sanders said.
He claimed that even people who have health insurance hesitate to go to the doctor because their deductibles are so high. Sanders also stated that insurance and pharmaceutical companies are making millions of dollars, when one in five Americans can’t afford prescription drugs.
“The current American healthcare system is dysfunctional — it has got to change,” Sanders said.
Other countries across the globe have established universal healthcare, which leaves many wondering why the United States isn’t doing the same.
Sanders criticized what he says is corruption behind the currently established system and believes that rather than trying to keep the American population safe and healthy, the system is primarily concerned about making huge profits.
“It is immoral for people to be making billions of dollars in profits based on the sickness of the American people. We don’t make money off of illness. What a rational health care system is, is a system designed on the needs of people, not the profit of insurance companies and drug companies.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Amanda Trejos at amanda.trejos@colorado.edu.
