I lived in Denver at the time and I can tell you exactly why I voted against Amendment 69. The organizers - the pro-single payer people - hosted a weekly conference call for anyone from the public who wanted to do a Q&A. I got on one of these calls and the organizer and I were the only ones on the line. I asked him if his proposal would essentially eliminate most private-sector insurance jobs, and he said yes. I asked him what the impact would be of the sudden shock of these private insurance providers being made obsolete - in fact, almost unlawful - under the revamped Colorado Care and he said that a few hundred would be re-employed as government employees but most (especially private agents and brokers) would have to find new employment elsewhere.

I would never use a phrase like 'hem and haw' literally unless I really meant it because it's a ridiculous locution, but when I asked him what the estimated economic impact of all of those jobs being eliminated simultaneously would be, he hemmed and hawed.

It wasn't so much the substance of his answers - he wasn't stupid by any means - it was the amateur nature of them. Nobody else was on the call. There was no coherent answer to basic questions about the ramifications of the government occupying the field in certain sectors. It just felt so totally amateurish, so disorganized, that my mind was made up. How could I trust people this inept to run healthcare for me? This is how a Democrat party-line voter living in Denver came to vote against Colorado's single-payer system.