By Polly Anderson Critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act call it too radical, too expensive and a threat to high quality medicine. But in truth, federal health reform emphasizes a return to the caring, personalized, evidence-based medicine that is well established at Colorados community health centers. While some are still debating the merits of expanding Colorados Medicaid program to a larger percentage of the poor, Colorado community health centers are not waiting to move forward. A growing pool of evidence tells us that our model is the future, and were preparing for a groundswell in patients, be…
Category: Legislation - Part 12
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon and Diane Carman Colorado leaders have failed to tackle gun fatalities as a public health threat and gun deaths in Colorado and nine other states now exceed automobile fatalities, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Violence Policy Center. Coloradans are reeling from the Aurora theater massacre, the third mass shooting here since 1999 when Columbine shattered the countrys psyche. Yet Colorados governor told a national television audience on Sunday that he thought there was little that could have been done to prevent the recent killings, and conspicuously absent…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Latinos, who are uninsured at disproportionately high rates in Colorado, could gain the most as health reform takes hold. Thats what happened in Massachusetts, which in 2006 became the first state in the nation to require health coverage for all individuals and to implement a health insurance exchange. Massachusetts health reform law became a model for the Affordable Care Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld. A lot of Latinos have low-paying jobs and they dont qualify for Medicaid, said Maria Gonzalez, spokeswoman of Health Care for All Massachusetts, a consumer advocacy group that…
By Jim Garcia As the executive director and one of the founders of Clinica Tepeyac, a community health clinic that sees more than its share of uninsured patients, I applaud the Supreme Courts ruling to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Presidents health care reform law that increases access to care for millions of Americans. Since we opened our doors at Clinica Tepeyac nearly 20 years ago, we committed ourselves to caring for all patients who cross our threshold, the vast majority of whom have no access to health insurance and who are desperately in need of…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Burdened with providing $1.5 billion in care for the uninsured a year, Colorado hospitals support an expansion of Medicaid to help reduce health care costs. As of now, the Medicaid expansion is the best solution we know of to get health insurance for the people who need it most, said Julian Kesner, spokesman for the Colorado Hospital Association. Kesner said the associations financial analysts are calculating how much a failure to expand Medicaid would cost hospitals, but he doesnt have an estimate yet. Hospitals cannot turn away uninsured people who show up sick in emergency rooms….
By Diane Carman The question before the court in New Mexico is absurdly simple and yet impossibly complex. What is the meaning of assisting suicide? If a terminally-ill patient refuses a ventilator or a feeding tube and the physician yields to that decision, is that assisting suicide? If the patient is in excruciating pain and requests total sedation and no nutrition or fluids, can the doctor be held accountable for his death? What if the patient seeks a prescription from her physician so that when the pain of dying is overwhelming she can seek the ultimate relief on her own?…
By Francis M. Miller Theres a pernicious tendency in politics that the arsonists who start the fire later return to the scene offering to solve the problem. Thats whats happening now with the Republicans and health care. Let me first state that I do not necessarily agree with President Barack Obama and the Democratic Partys set of solutions to deal with the health care crisis. I believe they are laying railroad track to create a system that will be inflationary. It threatens to destroy our economy and we must alter course and devise a hybrid free market solution. You cannot…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon If Colorado decides to expand Medicaid coverage to a larger percentage of the poor, the the states share could be a billion dollars over the next decade, Attorney General John Suthers warned on Monday. Suthers, who opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in court, said during a post-mortem panel discussion on Monday that Colorados governor and lawmakers face a tough decision. The expansion for a lot of states may seem like a no-brainer, Suthers said during a discussion of the Supreme Court ruling sponsored by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Denver Downtown….
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon A bill aimed at thwarting cavities in babies became collateral damage in the fight over civil unions in Colorado late Tuesday night. Senate Bill 12-108 had sailed through earlier hearings and was expected to pass in the House on Tuesday night, then be up for final approval today. But the bill died along with nearly three dozen other measures that were held hostage during the civil unions standoff. SB 108 would have provided funding for dental benefits for pregnant moms on Medicaid. Research has shown that mothers who have tooth decay and untreated cavities can pass…
By Bob Semro Consumers and businesses nationwide will receive an estimated $1.3 billion in rebates in August from health insurance companies that spent more on administration, overhead and profits than allowed under the Affordable Care Act, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Colorado, individuals and businesses will receive almost $26 million. Insurance companies will send rebates to 511,684 enrollees, for an average of $54.58 for each enrollee in the individual market, $82.62 in the small-group market and $47.84 in the large-group market. The rebates are thanks to a provision of the Affordable Care Act designed to ensure that insurance…