Issues:

Health Care:

As a law professor and expert witness before the legislature, I have practical experience with legislation concerning insurance and health care. As an attorney, I wrangle all the time with insurance companies in order to achieve justice for my clients. One in six Coloradans has no health insurance, and vast numbers are uninsured. The market for private health insurance has failed in Colorado. A single payer solution will:

• Provide universal health care;
• Cost less than the current system;
• Reduce administrative costs; and
• Eliminate for-profit insurance companies from your health care.

Patient Safety:

As a Board member of Colorado Citizens for Accountability, I testified in the House and Senate in favor of the Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act, which will make available to consumers information regarding physicians' training, credentials, and also disciplinary actions. I also support the Hospital Report Card.

Public Education:

I treasure education as a critical public structure. I have taught in great public universities - UC Berkeley & The University of Texas - and private universities - Stanford University & DU. I understand the problems of higher education but am focused on supporting K-12. Lack of support is causing our public school system to crash.

TABOR:

Together, TABOR, Arveschoug-Bird, and the Gallagher Amendment have damaged Colorado. This witch's brew of a fiscal mess is responsible for declines in health care, education, transportation, mental health, and drug prevention. I advocate Legal, Constitutional, and Political attacks on the TABOR-related mess, including:

• Thorough audit of 15 years of uncollected revenue due to TABOR decisions;
• Collection of uncollected taxes such as coal and other severance taxes;
• Enforcement of constitutional guarantees such as a “thorough and uniform system of free public schools”; and
• Funding of education, health care, and other public structures in Colorado should not be on a par with a much poorer state like Mississippi.

Civil and Criminal Justice:

I am an experienced advocate of Restorative Justice with regard to criminal justice. Community safety, crime prevention, repair of harm, and reintegration of offenders are the critical goals for criminal justice. The goal of our civil justice system should be to make injured persons whole again. I support the creation of remedies for consumers harmed by bad-faith denials of benefit by insurance companies.