Merry Christmas! Peace on Earth and a Gift from the Colorado Healthcare Folks

The Architect of the Capitol has an interactive site with the Capitol Christmas Tree including 3D versions of some of the ornaments!
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Tradition of gift-giving. Not to be a pest, but next week is the new year and we are only halfway to what it takes to keep TSW operating. Please consider a donation to this site. The donation widget can be found on the right. You can donate via paper check or Paypal.

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“Peace on earth, good will towards people”..

What we do here is seek peace or (try to) reduce (unnecessary) conflict by hearing and sharing different perspectives. So I was surprised to see how this effort in a completely different policy arena was similar. Thanks to Colorado Politics, which gives us a reduced subscription despite not being an official 501(c)(3).

These words are from folks in the Colorado healthcare world.. but they apply to our issues.. e.g., perhaps most in need, recreation, wildfire prevention, management and suppression.

And yet, for all this urgency, Colorado’s health care system suffers from one of its most debilitating flaws: no one owns the whole system. Decisions are made in silos — hospitals over here, insurers over there, state agencies somewhere in between. Policymakers often craft solutions without genuine input from the people who deliver or rely on care. And far too often, our debates start from clashing assumptions instead of shared facts.

That fragmented approach is pushing us toward the edge of the cliff. It’s also why a broad coalition of hospitals, physicians, health plans, behavioral-health providers, rural leaders and consumer advocates came together earlier this year. In a political environment defined by polarization, this group did something unusual: we sat down, challenged one another openly and confronted the uncomfortable truth Colorado is on an unsustainable trajectory.

Across hours of candid discussions, one theme kept resurfacing: if we don’t change how we solve problems, no big or small policy changes will fix what’s broken. We need real accountability for system-wide outcomes. We need policymaking that begins with community voices, not performative “consultations.” And we need decisions rooted in shared, validated data rather than ideology or assumptions.

This isn’t about blaming state leaders or pointing fingers among sectors. It’s about acknowledging health care is simply too large and complex for anyone to fix alone. Challenges such as workforce shortages, affordability pressures, dwindling rural access and regulatory overload are interconnected. They demand a coordinated response.

That is why our coalition has put forward a clear message to the governor, legislators and candidates: Colorado cannot afford another year of fragmented policymaking. We must move toward a model built on collaboration, transparency and shared responsibility. That means engaging the communities most affected by policy decisions before choices are made. It means being honest about both what is working and what is failing. And it means grounding decisions in common data so we can actually measure effect rather than guess at it.

The challenges ahead are enormous: protecting access as Medicaid funding shrinks, stabilizing the individual insurance market before thousands more lose coverage, strengthening support for the providers who serve low-income and rural Coloradans, streamlining the regulatory thicket driving up costs and addressing workforce shortages leaving entire communities without timely care.

But enormous does not mean impossible. With shared values and collective ownership, this moment offers Colorado a rare opportunity to reset. If we choose collaboration over turf battles and evidence over ideology, we can rebuild a system worthy of the people who depend on it. Our coalition stands ready to meet this moment. And we’re asking others to join us, before the cracks in our system become consequences too big to reverse.

Note how foundational the need for shared data (in our world, the long-awaited Peoples’ Database) is, and joint work across silos among people of good will. In our world, this is a dream we can all share and have a piece, in each of our own zone of influence, of moving toward that future.

Merry Christmas! And Whatever Other Winter Light Returning Holiday you celebrate!
See you back here on Monday.