By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorados health exchange board approved a new federal grant request of $125 million on Friday that will include about $13 million to provide in-person assistance to the uninsured. Some board members tried but failed to boost the grant request even higher to between $133 and $135 million to ensure that Colorado will have enough money to reach out to people who may never have had health insurance and could need extensive help signing up for federal subsidies starting this fall. Now dubbed Connect for Health Colorado, the new exchange is slated to start signing up customers…
Category: Legislation - Part 7
By Francis M. Miller The script for the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange is beginning to read like the storyline of Gilligans Island. It all started as a three-hour tour. From the outset the debate has centered on whether Colorado should set up its own exchange or have the feds do it for us. So far, 13 states, including Colorado, have opted to set up state-run exchanges. More than half the states, 26 of them, are refusing to participate and the feds will have to run it out of Washington, D.C. This has pretty much divided along party lines with Republican-led…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorados governor has added his deputy chief of staff to the states health exchange board and says he wants the project to come in on time and on budget. Kevin Patterson, Gov. John Hickenloopers deputy chief of staff and chief administrative officer, joined the board following news that Colorado needed a mediator to help settle differences between the states Medicaid managers and those building the states new health exchange. (Read more: Mediator to triage health exchange problems) Kevin is one of the most talented people we have in the administration, Hickenlooper said this week. When theres…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Despite outrage from some lawmakers who called review of Colorados health exchange a mockery, a bid for an additional $125 million in federal dollars is likely to move forward by next week. I would anticipate that we will sign off on this, said Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver. This (federal) money exists. If we dont take it, were going to have citizens picking up the costs for their premiums. Our goal is to have the most successful exchange in the country and this is part of that. Related: Governor adds deputy to health exchange board Mediator to…
By Francis M. Miller Indeclaring Americanindependence, our founders sought to eliminate two perverse forms of tyranny that had ruled private lives for centuries. The monarchy and the church had become corrupt andwere oppressive. My great-great-grandfather immigrated from Poland. Peasants therewere not even allowed to pick up dead tree limbs for firewood. As Walter McDougall, the historian, wrote in Freedom Just Around the Corner, these medieval systems were never reformed. They werereplaced when the peasants dropped their hoes, walked out of the fields andboarded ships to America. The18th centurymindset of ourfounding fathers did not envision predatory global corporations or the massive…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon A bill that would expand Medicaid to about 200,000 more low-income Coloradans continues to move through the Colorado legislature without support from Republicans in the House. Bill sponsor and House Speaker Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said Medicaid expansion would boost Colorados economy by $4.4 billion and add up to 22,000 jobs by 2026 while saving taxpayers money in the long run. Ferrandino sold Medicaid expansion as a measure that is winning support from Republican governors around the country. But in Colorado, members of the GOP are not biting. While no opponents spoke against the bill just like…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Sparring between Colorados Medicaid managers and those building the states new health exchange prompted an outside analyst to recommend a third party to triage and manage the project. A mediator from the New Jersey-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation now will come to Colorado to help managers get the giant multi-million dollar project off the ground on time by Oct. 1 when its slated to open to consumers. Complicating tight launch deadlines is that Colorado lawmakers set up the states new online health insurance marketplace as an independent public entity, not a state agency. According to a…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorado is the only state in the country where three separate laws govern the actions of police, emergency doctors, mental health and substance abuse experts when patients appear to be a danger to themselves or others and need to be held against their will for 72 hours. A new law winding its way through the legislature, HB 13-1296, for the first time defines key terms related to involuntary holds including danger to self or others and what it means to be gravely disabled because of a mental health crisis. Originally intended to meld and clarify the…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, withdrew her universal health care bill but has no intention of giving up the fight. This is Step One, Aguilar said. This is going to be a long process. Aguilar introduced a different measure calling for a study of universal care. That measure, SJR 13-021, passed the Senate and now moves to the House. Aguilar has twice introduced measures into the Colorado Legislature both in 2010 and this year seeking universal health care only to face a buzz saw of opposition from health insurance and business lobbyists. This year, Aguilar hoped to…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon As Adam Lanza fired 154 shots from a rifle, mowing down 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a group of gun control advocates and law enforcement officers happened to be meeting in Colorado to craft legislation to curb gun violence here. Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who lost her son to a 2005 shooting, and Rep. Beth McCann, D-Denver, a former prosecutor and Denver manager of safety, both attended the Dec. 15 meeting. The news from Newtown, Conn., was fresh and shocking. Heartbreaking updates came in spurts on phones. No one knew…