By Dr. Thomas Gottlieb Coloradans need health care. Its a basic human right. Yet as we get more information about Colorados new health insurance exchange, it seems less certain that people will get the health care they need. The exchange, also called a marketplace, seems more complex every day. I wonder if Coloradans who need the help most will even be able to understand this new system, much less figure out how to get care. There is a simple solution.We need universal health care, specifically a public single-payer health system that would assure all of us who need care can…
Category: Public Health Issues - Part 9
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Since medical marijuana has become legal in Colorado, doctors have seen a dramatic spike in the number of babies and children who accidentally ate marijuana and needed emergency treatment. A new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics found that 14 children needed to be treated at Childrens Hospital Colorado for accidental pot ingestion after 2009, when medical marijuana shops began to proliferate in Colorado. The children ranged from an 8-month-old to a 12-year-old. The study authors cannot make a direct link between the proliferation of medical marijuana shops and the…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The pseudo therapist is the ultimate manly man: part Ron Burgundy, part Dr. Phil, and part Burt Reynolds. Meet Dr. Rich Mahogany, the hilarious, irreverent online doc who uses dark humor to combat the deadly serious topic of male depression and suicide. Dr. M, as his creators affectionately call him, teaches breathing exercises complete with the F-word so you can deal with your SOB boss and that 105-year-old lady doing 7 in the fast lane. His idea of yoga is the seventh-inning stretch. He cleans his desk with a leaf blower, counts a long spell on…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The pseudo therapist is the ultimate manly man: part Ron Burgundy, part Dr. Phil, and part Burt Reynolds. Meet Dr. Rich Mahogany, the hilarious, irreverent online doc who uses dark humor to combat the deadly serious topic of male depression and suicide. Dr. M, as his creators affectionately call him, teaches breathing exercises complete with the F-word so you can deal with your SOB boss and that 105-year-old lady doing 7 in the fast lane. His idea of yoga is the seventh-inning stretch. He cleans his desk with a leaf blower, counts a long spell on…
By Michael Lott-Manier Colorados 69th General Assembly convened in January in the shadow of heartbreaking tragedies in Aurora and in Newtown, Conn. Gov. John Hickenlooper and legislators from both parties expressed the desire to respond to a perceived connection between these atrocious crimes and serious mental illness. Mental Health America of Colorado (MHAC), as it has done for 60 years, met with legislators and lobbyists to educate them about mental health. We reminded them that the vast majority (96 percent) of violent crimes are not committed by individuals with mental health conditions, that connecting violence and mental health in public…
By Debra Judy The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is celebrating the end of the Colorado legislature because the takeaway is Colorado health care consumers win big this session! For all of us, getting the care we need, when we need it isnt too much to ask. So we were delighted that Colorados legislators and Gov. John Hickenlooper really took this idea to heart this year as they helped move toward barrier-free access to quality and affordable health care for all Coloradans. Sponsored by Rep. Beth McCann and Sen. Irene Aguilar, the bill to modernize stop-loss health insurance is an important…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Coloradans hunting for health insurance will have 19 companies competing for their business with up to 1,000 different plans that could be offered through the states new health exchange and on the open market. Starting in 2014, for the first time, insurance companies selling to individuals wont be able to exclude people with pre-existing health conditions. Thats one of the reasons consumers and competitors are eagerly awaiting plan details and costs, which Colorado authorities plan to unveil Wednesday. For now, Colorados Commissioner of Insurance Jim Riesberg says hes pleasantly surprised that 19 health insurance companies want…
By Phil Kalin For those of us who have been in health care for a while, Medicares recent release of hospital data identifying substantial variation between prices charged and actual payments isnt news. Nor is the fact that charges for similar services by one hospital can be vastly different from those of the one down the road. Health insiders have known for years that the amounts charged by hospitals have little or no relationship to what is actually paid. Making the data public for the first time, however, does give us an opportunity to review Medicare payments alongside amounts being…
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…
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…