Senate Bill 189 passed the Colorado legislature last week, threatening to spread the full cost of abortions among everyone with health insurance. It awaits one more process before spoiling the image of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and raising the cost of insurance to fund an extreme agenda.

The governor must veto this bill, if only to protect the integrity of his word, and stop the latest attack on employers and workers.

The governor has a limited political future in Colorado, having served in the state’s highest office. He is an increasingly viable prospect for a White House run, if legislative radicals don’t drag him down.

The Democratic Party’s national bench is weaker than usual. Polling shows most Democrats want President Joe Biden to retire and hand off the baton. To whom?

Vice President Kamala Harris polls worse than Biden – among Democrats. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg symbolizes ineptitude. California Gov. Gavin Newsome is too far left for adequate support in the Bible Belt, Industrial Belt, most of the South including Florida, Midwest agricultural states and a few key swing states.

To blow his potential last-man-standing circumstance, Polis need only sign this radical, anti-business, anti-worker legislation. That makes his decision on SB-189 an asset or liability going forward. Imagine opposition ads if he signs this bill and seeks national office: “Polis forced everyone – even grandma – to pay for abortions with hard-earned wages.”

SB-189 is the emotional indulgence of legislative ignorance, at best. At worst, sponsors know it will harm consumers and simply don’t care about them. Polis, no economic dimwit, should care.

The bill would mandate large-employer insurance policies – and with rare exceptions individual and small-business plans – to cover all costs of abortions. It forbids charging copays, deductibles or other forms of cost-sharing to abortion patients.

Consider average employees insured through employers. Whether unskilled, vocationalists, or professionals they suffer a hit each time they use insurance. No matter how hard they work, the premiums, deductibles, co-pays and specialist fees – all varieties of cost sharing – get more expensive.

The worker may be paycheck to paycheck, but life-saving care becomes $500, $1,000 or more in out-of-pocket expense.

Cardiac arrest, aneurysm, cancer, blunt force trauma, live birth… doesn’t matter, they pay out of pocket no matter how important the treatment may be to saving a life.

If he signs SB-189, Polis will create and exception for patients seeking abortions or treatments for sexually transmitted diseases. He will deem those procedures more important than life-saving chemo, labor and delivery or crisis appendectomies. The law would put the entire cost of abortions on everyone else paying for insurance, whether or not they can procreate. We know of no other health care procedures unconditionally exempt from cost-sharing arrangements that stabilize premiums. There is no justice in SB-189.

We know Gov. Polis opposes insurance mandates – even for life-saving care. Three years ago he signed a mandate bill that forces insurers to cover fertility care. He said Colorado needs more children. The fertility mandate allows cost-sharing, as it should.

Upon signing the fertility bill, Polis warned legislators to never bring him another insurance mandate unless sponsors could prove it would save money and not raise premiums.

“Additional mandates, which may, by themselves, be important advancements in expanding coverage or reducing long-term costs, often do not meet the second goal of lowering health insurance costs… and can have the unintended consequence of making coverage less accessible to those who need it most,” Polis wrote on April 1, 2020.

SB-189 would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating on a basis of gender. That stipulation is perfectly reasonable, but has nothing in common with cost-free abortions, and only a marginal nexus to STDs. Polis should demand a separate bill forbidding gender bias.

Most people cannot afford another premium increase and higher co-pays to fund abortions for strangers. Those businesses barely able to provide insurance cannot afford more cost hikes to fund this proposed mandate. Polis was absolutely correct when he said mandates raise insurance costs and increase the number of uninsured. This is no time for Polis to ignore his economic acumen.

If Gov. Polis signs this bill, he will shred any remnant of his Democrat-libertarian-humanitarian image. He will merge himself with doctrinaire left-wing activists and raise healthcare costs. Governor, don’t join the fecklessly ridiculous. Veto SB-189 ASAP.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board