Category: News - Part 16

Annual tab for Colorado health exchange about $25 million

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Colorados new health exchange will cost an estimated $22 million to $26 million a year starting in 2015, spurring managers to consider advertising, taxes on insurance companies or fees charged to employers and consumers using the exchange to pay for it. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formally approved Colorados exchange on Monday, making the state one of the first six in the country to approved to open for enrollment next October. Other states that will use a federally-run health exchange will pay fees of about 3.5 percent on the premiums that each person…

Opinion: Colorado must expand access to dental care

By Sara Schmitt It is becoming more difficult for Coloradans to get oral health care. Last Thursday, legislators who attended the Hot Issues in Health Care conference in Colorado Springs, sponsored by the Colorado Health Institute, got a sneak preview of new Colorado Trust report on oral health. Based on findings from the 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS), the report, A Growing Problem: Oral Health Coverage, Access and Usage in Colorado, said there are now more than 2 million Coloradans without dental insurance an increase of 17 percent since the 2009 baseline survey. The survey also found that having…

Opinion: Informed patients essential for better health care

By Dr. David Downs Medical science has advanced at a remarkable pace. We can now replace worn joints and diseased heart valves, open clogged arteries and identify cancers before they become untreatable. We can see into the center of the body with remarkable detail using CT scanners, MRI machines and other technologies all without pain or discomfort. These and many other modern medical miracles are generally viewed as a great benefit to the health of those for whom they are available. And in the American spirit of newer, better and faster, we have taken to these services avidly. It is…

Insurance companies block nurse care

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Two of Colorados largest insurance companies refuse to pay for their clients to see independent advanced practice nurses in urban areas even though some patients want to see them and the care would cost less. Advanced practice nurses say the insurance companies, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Colorado and Rocky Mountain Health Plans, are protecting doctors in a turf war instead of focusing on whats best for patients and allowing free market choice. Nicole Snelgrove, 35, has insurance through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Colorado and has chosen to spend more than…

Opinion: Medicaid expansion may be more costly than advertised

By Linda Gorman The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has radically restructured federal subsidy programs for medical care. For the first time in decades, it makes it reasonable for Colorado to begin mending its structural fiscal imbalance by reversing the excessive growth in the states Medicaid and child health insurance programs. The act makes commercial insurance widely available for both working and nonworking people at all income levels. If it works as advertised, the federally subsidized commercial health coverage offered through the Affordable Care Act health benefits exchange will provide better health coverage for the basically healthy adults…

HIV cases down, risky behavior up

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon AIDS killed scores of David Lipsons close friends, an adored partner and even his own brother. One of the first men in the nation to be tested for HIV back in 1984, David Lipson received the same terrible test results that ensnared so many of his friends. Then 26 and living in Los Angeles, Lipson learned he was HIV positive and his doctor told him he would die within two years. HIV infection rates are down 45 percent in Denver from 2005. Rates could decrease further if more men engaged in safe sex. Source: Dr. Mark…

Colorado’s health exchange must pay for itself by 2015

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon While some states are still wrestling over whether to build their own health exchanges, Colorado is playing hurry-up offense, tackling major policy decisions including the biggest one on the horizon: how to pay for the online health insurance marketplace. Now a reality across the country as the Affordable Care Act steams toward full implementation, health exchanges are supposed to make it easier for individuals and small business owners to choose and buy health insurance plans. Some people will qualify for government subsidies to help them afford insurance while exchanges will funnel others into public health insurance…

Senator, doctor, champion for the vulnerable

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The mother laces her fingers through her daughters hands, holding her in her lap. She sings to calm her while a medical assistant straps a blood pressure cuff around the girls arm. Amy gets nervous going to the doctor. Countless strokes that she suffered in utero 18 years ago have left her blind and severely developmentally disabled. At just over 100 pounds, she is petite, but still much too big for her mothers lap. Even so, her mom, state Sen. Irene Aguilar, a primary care doctor herself and a Denver Democrat, knows well how to soothe…

Now in control, Colorado Democrats want Medicaid expansion

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Tuesdays election results ensure that implementation of Obamacare will proceed on a fast track in Colorado and Democratic lawmakers want to move ahead with Medicaid expansion that could bring health coverage to nearly a quarter million low-income Coloradans. We would like to push to get health care to as many people as possible because thats going to reduce the costs for everyone, said Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, who is expected to take the reins of the Colorado House in January after Democrats recaptured control of it on Tuesday. Gov. John Hickenlooper is more circumspect. While he…

Opinion: VA system inadequate to meet veterans’ health care needs

By Gretchen Hammer The experience of military service can have a profound impact on a veterans life. I have listened as the veterans in my family recount with pride their service to our great country and with pain some of the difficult experiences of combat. The sacrifices they and our family made are real, and a real testament to their commitment to our country. As we come together to celebrate Veterans Day it is important that we consider how we might repay this commitment with a promise of our own: The promise of access to high-quality, affordable health care. Understanding…