In his Aug. 31 news conference at the State Capitol, and again the following week in testimony before a committee of the U.S. Senate, Gov. Hickenlooper unveiled a “bipartisan plan” for improving the disastrous health care reform system dumped on the nation by very partisan Democrats in 2010.  Yet, the “pragmatic proposals” put forward by Hickenlooper and his six partnering governors do not address many of the most serious problems created by the Affordable Care Act, known to its millions of victims as Obamacare.

As for the “bipartisan” label affixed to the governors’ much-publicized plan, we leave it to others to judge whether a plan endorsed by only two of 34 Republican governors – Nevada’s Sandoval and Ohio’s Kasich – passes the smell test as truly bipartisan. Here in Colorado, unlike Washington, D.C., we think genuine bipartisanship requires more than tokenism.

When asked by a reporter if he had consulted any Republicans in Colorado while preparing his plan, Hickenlooper replied that he would be speaking with Republicans in Washington, D.C., by testifying before a Senate committee. Presumably, Colorado Republicans could listen to that testimony and ask questions afterwards.

Well, we Colorado Republicans do have a few questions not yet answered by Hickenlooper – questions about the real-world problems created by Obamacare in Colorado.

In his Aug. 31 news conference, the governor called his plan a pragmatic “Band-Aid.” He used the term “stabilize” eight separate times, saying the primary goal of his plan is “to stabilize insurance markets.”  But we think most Coloradans want more from their elected officials than the “stabilization” of a program that has been responsible for reducing choice, raising rates to unprecedented heights and increasing taxpayer subsidies by hundreds of millions of dollars while failing to address the underlying cost drivers in our health care system.

If the many questions being asked by ordinary Coloradans remain unanswered when the Second Regular Session of the Colorado 71st General Assembly convenes in January, the people’s representatives would be justified in asking the people’s chief executive to appear before them and answer questions on these matters – with or without his teammates from Ohio and Nevada.