Colorado offers lessons for Democrats on creating a public option

Details: Colorado's public option would be run by private insurers, although it would more tightly limit insurers' profits and administrative costs. Insurers don't like the additional regulation.

• The proposal lowers premiums in the individual market by lowering what hospitals are paid — so the state's hospital industry is fiercely opposing it, too.

The intrigue: A local affiliate of the Partnership for America's Health Care Future Action — the group opposing Medicare for All nationally — paid for a mailer that warned Coloradans that the proposal would raise costs and lead to hospital closures.

• Expect that exact same messaging if Democrats seize power in the 2020 elections — except on a much, much larger scale.

Go deeper: Blue states' watered-down health reforms