Meet Olivia Miller

Who I Am

I was born and raised in Colorado, and like you, I’m proud to call Denver home. Growing up, my family owned a small medical billing business. Small business means all hands on deck, so my siblings and I spent our summers working on everything from trimming the hedges outside the family office to calling Medicare to see if they had paid our claims. When I earned my MBA from the University of Colorado, I joined my parents full-time and worked hard to help it grow.

While we took great pride in running a strong family business that gave full benefits to our employees, no matter how small we were, my dad always reminded me that “medical billing shouldn’t exist.”

That stuck with me. What he meant was that in the U.S., we have a health insurance system that is so focused on not paying for medical care that we need an entire billing industry to exist for doctors to get paid for their work and to help patients avoid unfair denials.

This is wrong. We need a single-payer system that treats healthcare as a human right and pays doctors for their work without requiring hours of paperwork. 

After we sold the business so my parents could retire, I worked in sales for another small medical billing business. During the pandemic, I had to leave that small business behind in search of a corporate job because I needed stable health insurance, which wasn’t available to me as a contractor.

In Colorado, we are lucky to buy insurance on Connect for Health Colorado, and I have had to take advantage of that on several occasions. I’ve purchased private insurance, and I’ve also been on Medicaid.

Having experienced many insurers over the years, I can say that without a doubt, Medicaid is the best insurance I have ever had. This opportunity is now at risk due to the cuts within the “Big Beautiful Bill”. Coloradans are at risk of losing their healthcare subsidies, their healthcare access, and so much more. 

Our legislature will have to tackle the problem of healthcare, and as a candidate who understands the industry, I will be ready and able to help. 

What I Believe

We need to get rid of the tipped minimum wage and require all employers to pay the standard minimum wage. People should be paid a fair wage rather than relying on the generosity of customers to pay their wages. I worked at a coffee shop that took advantage of the tipped minimum wage, and as a result, even with tips, we all made less than the standard minimum wage.

Your wages should not be based on whether a customer is having a good or bad day. We all deserve to make enough money, with or without tips, to pay for our basic needs. 

Everyone deserves to have paid time off. The United States is the only developed country that does not require paid time off for workers. This is Colorado’s chance to change that on a state level. All employers should provide at least 10 days of paid time off to their employees each year. Not only is it good for employees, but it is good for business. 

We need to increase taxes on second homes and add occupancy requirements. We cannot continue to allow the wealthy in Colorado to sit on empty homes that are disrupting our housing supply, forcing workers to commute further,  and starving family businesses in small towns.

We can use the increased tax revenue to fund permanently affordable housing and support first-time home buyer credits. 

We need to continue the work to take on TABOR (Tax Payer Bill of Rights) and change Colorado’s income tax from a flat tax to a graduated income tax. This would require the wealthy to pay their fair share and allow Colorado to once again fund our school systems. This would also provide an opportunity to fund childcare, especially for low-income families. 

Let’s bring new energy, big ideas, and hard work to the Capital, starting right here in SD34.