Just a few short weeks ago the board members of Colorado’s healthcare exchange were arguing about being $4 million over budget on their call center. Instead of tightening their belts like normal people and businesses have to do, they have apparently thrown caution into the wind and decided to continue the splurge. 

Today, the exchange announced it will be opening thirteen retail locations across the state where people can go in person to buy overpriced insurance. Budget be damned!

After all, why worry about expenses when you can just raise fees on Coloradans who buy insurance? That’s the opinion of exchange board member and Finance Committee chair Arnold Salazar. At a recent meeting, Salazar said that rather than cutting costs he’d like see Coloradans who buy insurance cough up even more cash in the form of higher fees.

It’s obviously not fair to make Coloradans pay for Salazar’s inability to balance a budget and do basic math, but when has that ever stopped the government? Oh wait, the exchange is technically a non-profit. A non-profit whose unelected board can raise fees on a product that everyone HAS to buy. Yep, makes a whole of sense… but only if you’re on LSD… or a liberal.

Colorado law does require the exchange to be financially self-sustaining by 2015, but maybe if it were structured like a business instead of a government-run non-profit (whatever the f*$& that is) then it would actually be solvent by now.