DENVER – It was a case of friendly crossfire on Wednesday when Colorado Democrats sparred outside the offices of the liberal-leaning ProgressNow over their positions on Amendment 69, a question on the November ballot that would create universal health care.

On the steps of the small house it occupies in downtown Denver, ProgressNow announced its opposition to the proposed universal health care system and arranged to have Democratic House Majority Leader Crisanta Duran to speak out against it.

State Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, and other backers of Amendment 69 scheduled a press conference at the same location 30 minutes earlier to get their point of view out first.

The overlap made for political theater as the inner-party squabble unfolded.

Aguilar laid out her argument for why Colorado should implement its own health care system funded by an additional payroll tax. It would be available to all Colorado residents and could set coverage guidelines and payment rates for doctors and pharmaceuticals.

The Colorado CareYES group conceded the ground and allowed Duran and others to talk about why they oppose the measure.

The battle is a microcosm of the fight among Democrats across the nation over the policies of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and those of presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Sanders supports a more socialist approach to everything from health care and college affordability to reforming Wall Street and restricting oil and gas operators. Clinton’s stance on those issues started much more moderate, although after Sanders put on a surprising show, winning several states like Colorado, she adopted some of Sanders’ policy positions.

Aguilar confirmed that Colorado CareYES is in talks with Sanders to see if he will campaign for Amendment 69.

Duran applauded her Statehouse colleague’s goal of reducing the number of uninsured people, but she was adamant that Amendment 69 would be a disaster.

“We all strongly applaud the efforts and motivations of the backers of Amendment 69,” Duran said. “Despite recent gains, there are still too many people who don’t have access to quality and affordable care. After carefully reviewing the language, we are concerned that consuming $25 billion each year in state funds will threaten our ability to fund key priorities such as education, transportation and housing in the years ahead.”

Duran cited the Colorado Health Institute study that forecast a major impact on Colorado’s state budget if Amendment 69 passes. Aguilar said that study was deeply flawed and relied upon assumptions that were improbable.

The ProgressNow opposition to Amendment 69 is the latest in a string of Democratic or liberal organizations opposing a measure proposed by Democrats.

NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado Executive Director Karen Middleton reiterated her opposition to the amendment on Wednesday, saying that as written the proposed health care system would eliminate coverage for abortions. Many private health insurance companies now cover abortions, however, state law prohibits state dollars from funding the procedures.

The money used to fund the Colorado Care system would come from taxes and be handled by the state, which Middleton said would likely be prohibited from covering abortions.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, opposes the measure as does U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

Aguilar has proposed a state health care law in the Colorado General Assembly that was killed by Democrats.

“If I sit down and try to have substantive discussions with these folks who say they don’t support what I’m trying to do, they just don’t have the knowledge and expertise to have a substantive discussion,” said Aguilar, who is a medical doctor and on the board of Denver Health Hospital. “Which says to me that they are being fed talking points by someone whose opinion they respect more than mine. That, I will say, is insulting because, frankly, any time any of them are sick they look for me, right?”

Aguilar said she is motivated by her lifelong goal to prevent deaths from occurring simply because people don’t have access to health care. But even some long-time proponents of a national single-payer health care system, where some sort of federal tax funds health care for all, are opposed to Amendment 69.

Dr. Don Parsons, a Colorado physician who spoke Wednesday, said the concept of launching such a system in a single-state as an experiment is “impractical and even reckless.”

The two Democratic factions seem unlikely to convince one another of their postpositions, and the conflict may carry over from November into the 2017 legislative session.

At the event Wednesday, supporters of the ColoradoCare plan became agitated and vocal as other Democrats spoke ill of their plan. The scene ended with Aguilar asking her supporters to be respectful of ProgressNow’s event, but she quickly added that she didn’t appreciate the group suggesting she was spreading “misinformation.”

Ian Silveri, head of ProgressNow defended his group.

“This is not easy,” he said, adding Aguilar is a friend who helped him quit smoking. “It’s not easy to stick our necks out just because we think the policy is wrong.”

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

Colorado Sen. Irene Aguilar, right, who is a physician at Denver Health, helps deliver more than 156,000 signatures to put a health care question on the 2016 ballot, outside the offices of the Colorado Secretary of State, in Denver. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)