Editor:

As we wrap up Mental Health Awareness Month, please note that this November, Coloradans can vote for ColoradoCare, Amendment 69, a universal health care plan that would improve lives, including those impacted by mental illness and incarceration -or both. ColoradoCare pays for comprehensive health care for every resident and lowers overall health care costs by $4.5 billion annually.

At least half of the inmates in the US have some form of mental illness and 65 percent have a substance abuse addiction. Ironically, those who become incarcerated often receive quality health care for the first time. When released, they often lose this care, leading to more crime, re-incarceration, and cost. With ColoradoCare, every resident of the state will be assured health care with no deductibles, encouraging all to receive timely, needed care.

Many people with a chronic and persistent mental illness have difficulty negotiating the health care system to attain coverage. Universal coverage in Colorado would both simplify health care for those in need and assure payment for treating people with serious mental health issues.

People with mental illnesses are arrested more for nuisance offenses rather than criminally intended offenses. The availability of good treatment options would eliminate many of these arrests. This more humane approach avoids the vicious cycles that involvement with the criminal justice system can entail, and saves money.

With ColoradoCare, counties in Colorado would save greatly on jail medical expenses. Even if an inmate has Medicaid, they are not eligible when incarcerated. One or two inmates needing, say, open-heart surgery in a small county can devastate that county’s budget. ColoradoCare will not only save millions in county budgets for employees’ health care; ColoradoCare will protect counties’ jail budgets too.

Amendment 69, ColoradoCare, will free us from our current wasteful chaos, make our communities safer, and save lives. Contribute, volunteer, learn more, and vote yes!

Bill Semple

ColoradoCareYES Campaign

Louisville