Proposed Colorado constitutional amendment to restrict health insurance mandates defeated

November 9, 2010 — Proposed Amendment 63 to Colorado’s state constitution, which would have prevented the state from adopting or enforcing state or federal mandates to require individuals to participate in a health insurance plan, was defeated last Tuesday by a margin of 53 percent to 47 percent.

In a 9NEWS-Denver Post poll conducted by SurveyUSA two weeks before the election, Amendment 63 was seen as a potential tossup. While 36 percent of survey responders indicated opposition and 24 percent said they supported the measure, 40 percent of survey participants had said they were undecided. The poll’s margin of error was 4.3 percent.

Remapping Debate had covered the implications of Amendment 63 in a Story Repair run the week before the election.

“We’re definitely pleased with the outcome,” said Adela Flores-Brennan, a health care attorney at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. “Reasonable heads prevailed.”

Linda Gorman, director of the Health Care Policy Center at the Independence Institute, the leading supporter of proposed Amendment 63, said that she was “disappointed” with the outcome. Asked whether she would try to mount a similar effort in the future, she was noncommittal, and would say only that it “depends on what happens in the state.”