So much lately is offered about what the Democratic and Republican parties need to do to win elections. Are Democrats too lefty and Republicans too far on the extreme right? These questions are wrong. The focus should be on what actions can elected officials take to improve prospects for Americans, especially us Coloradans.

Baby-boomer Americans are in relatively good shape. They are now on Medicare so they enjoy affordable health care coverage and, for many, Silver Sneakers, or free memberships to gyms such as YMCA’s and 24-Hour Fitness. In Colorado, seniors also catch a break on property taxes.

Social Security isn’t enough for all living expenses, but many seniors earned enough working and/or inherited additional funds from their Depression-era and World War II parents who were good savers. This generation may run out of money if they age up to 100, but for a big chunk of their retirement years, seniors will do okay.

Seniors don’t have the same worries as young adults and today’s parents. But they are too often the elected individuals in Congress and the executive branch. Both parties need to find people in closer touch with the living realities of younger Americans. That’s the first practical step toward making the political world at least somewhat responsive to more Americans’ needs.

Of the many problems facing U.S. households, insurance of all kinds is one of the biggest. Vehicle insurance, homeowners and health care insurance are backbreakers. These three family budget-busters represent dollars and cents issues most often discussed over TV food trays at dinner time, along with the cost of utilities and groceries. Our politicians have made home budget challenges ideological. Ideological “fixes” are almost always haphazard and illogical.

For car and homeowners in Colorado, specific features of living here create risk: hail, fire and roundabouts. Money pooling is what insurance companies use to lower overall risk. Perhaps an enterprise, either private or public, should get into the money pooling business exclusive to hail and fire damage caused by natural disasters. Everyone pays in, which lowers the overall cost, and individuals living in fire risk areas pay more because they’ve accepted that extra risk as a life choice.

With vehicle hail damage, unless the damage affects drivability, people with minor car dents can do the fixes on their own dime. With all the roof damage from hailstorms in recent years, new roofs are the norm. Aren’t these roofs hail resistant? If they aren’t, shouldn’t they be? Policy in this area would be useful.

Roundabouts need much better signage. That’s enough said on that subject.

Health care insurance is that other bulky, costly insurance problem that generates ideological emotion rather than practical solutions. Everyone needs health care. The most important question is how to pay for it. Ideological capitalists in the U.S. see free markets as the best solution. Most other countries provide some government intervention options on the grounds everyone needs health care so everyone should pitch in for the cost. If everyone pitches in, costs will moderate as the unsick in the money pool offset the sick, even though the unsick will be sick at some point in their lives.

The legislature passed a small bill in 2025 for a study on how universal health care could be implemented in the state. Following free market rules, supporters are raising private funds to pay for the study by the state’s department of public health. Based on findings, there will be an initiative to offer universal health care, which should help cure that health insurance migraine headache.

Some people will label this health care pooling concept as “socialism.” But in practice people will simply pay their premiums into a public fund to cover the cost of privately-delivered services. This concept encourages capitalism by taking the costly burden of covering employee health care off the backs of businesses. It will free entrepreneurial individuals to pursue their goals without worrying about losing health care coverage.

Right now, insurance can easily eat up $1,500/month or much more in family income. Add childcare, a car payment and school loans to the monthly bills and the checking account looks close to empty with food and housing still outstanding. No wonder even prosperous young people are holding off on weddings and children.

Right now, the free- and tariff-driven markets are pushing up the cost of living so jobs like restaurant service, custodial worker, educator, supermarket employee, IT coder, or health care provider won’t cut it. What are the people who work these essential jobs supposed to do to make their ends meet?

Today’s society is at a tipping and choosing point. Free market capitalism works in most areas of our economy, but not in every area. Practical people will recognize the limits and enact policies that support what works and mitigate what doesn’t. Wealthy entrepreneurs enthralled by their successes will kill their golden goose when young people in our republic get sick of strangling expenses withering their life options. That’s the message of New Yorkers electing their Democrat-Socialist mayor. Eventually, that message will also come from North Dakota soybean farmers.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.