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Moving beyond "Obamacare," political activists are looking to state ballot questions to refocus the nation's long-running debate over government's role in health care. This fall, California voters will decide whether to lower some prescription drug prices, while Coloradans will vote on a state version of a "single-payer" government-run health system, similar to what Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed in his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. (8/9)

A well-financed industry campaign trying to kill a single-payer health care measure on the ballot in Colorado in November is coalescing around a simple overarching message: Pretty much everyone, they say, hates the idea. The “Coloradans for Coloradans” campaign has received financial backing — about $3.7 million, so far — from large health insurers, Colorado hospitals and others with ties to the health care industry. But the campaign’s strategy is to build a far broader coalition — not just businesses and conservatives who are the natural foes of a bigger government role in health care, but more liberal voices such as unions, and even some abortion rights advocates who think single payer would be bad for the state, or who say the priority should be improving Obamacare. (Pradhan, 8/9)