By Dr. Tom Gottlieb The recent Time Magazine Special Report by Stephen Brill Why Medical bills Are Killing Us demonstrates a series of narratives that describe problems in our health care system. The article focuses on the cost of health care services. Brill blames cost problems on insurance companies, medical equipment manufacturers, hospitals (both for-profit and nonprofit) and pharmaceutical companies. He says that excess costs by and large are not related to physician and patient behaviors. Brill suggests that real solutions might be related to lowering the age for Medicare eligibility and implementing a single-payer system. He further states that…
Category: Trends In Health Care - Part 8
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, plans to introduce a bill on Friday seeking universal health care in Colorado. Under her plan, employers would pay a 6 percent payroll tax for each worker while employees would pay a 3 percent share. Self-employed people and investors would pay a 9 percent tax on income and capital gains. In exchange for those costs, all Coloradans who have lived in the state for at least one year by the beginning of 2016 would become part of a statewide health care co-op and would get platinum-level health plans, the most generous package…
By Donna Smith It isnt often that I learn a new word in the health care system discussion, but this week I did. Churning. I was at a meeting here in Colorado where I have taken on a new role in advocating and administering for a publicly financed, universal, single-payer system with Health Care for All Colorado.And the definition of churning I learned is a sad commentary on a system that still allows access to care based on inequality of coverage that leaves so many people suffering and tens of thousands dying in America every year. Churning is the policy…
By Dr. Jay Want I do a fair amount of work in payment and delivery system reform in various communities around the country.I have been speaking to physicians about change coming for over a decade.If you have done any of this work, you may have had this common experience: that change is hard and people have to have a really good reason to change the status quo.I admit it sometimes seemed to me that change would never come. But lately I have noticed some of the conversations are different.I have been in a couple of meetings recently where audience physicians…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Expanding Medicaid to an estimated 275,000 additional people will cost Colorado less than the price of not adding them. That’s the bold prediction from a new study of Medicaid expansion commissioned by the Colorado Health Foundation, which supports expansion, and conducted by seasoned legislative budget analyst Charlie Brown and a team of economists. Brown and his team found that expanding Medicaid would essentially be a stimulus program for Colorado because so many millions of federal dollars would flow into the state to pay for the new patients’ care. Federal taxes will pay 100 percent of the…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon FORT COLLINS Roger Mondragon visited the ER 22 times in two years, but still felt lousy and neglected. It was the only place I knew to go, said Mondragon, 22. When Im in pain, Im stressed. Im frustrated and angry. Developmentally delayed and suffering from several ailments including kidney disease, severe back pain, migraines and respiratory problems, Mondragon used to dial an ambulance whenever his anxiety or pain escalated. In a single month, he says he called an ambulance eight times. Born with a fractured disk and severe asthma, Mondragon spent the first few months of…
By Kevin Vaughan I-News Network Lucero Barrios is Latina and a new mother circumstances that place her squarely in a group of people affected by a shocking reality in Colorado: A Hispanic baby born in this state is 63 percent more likely than a white baby to die in the first year of life. And Latinos arent alone the disparity is even more stark for Colorados African Americans, who experience an infant mortality rate three times that of Caucasians. The gap in theinfant mortality rate is just one measurement by which the states largest groups of ethnic and racial minorities…
By Joe Sammen Infographic by Sarah Mapes As the Colorado Legislature began its 69thsession earlier this month, issues affecting rural Coloradans were at the forefront. A number of legislators expressed their commitment to working to find solutions around familiar rural concerns, including scarce water resources, protecting agricultural lands and issues around oil and gas production. But perhaps no other political issue will affect rural Colorado in thefuture as much as our changing health care landscape. Gov. John Hickenlooper recently announced Colorados intention to expand Medicaid eligibility in 2014 for our poorest citizens, creating unprecedented access to health insurance in our…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Gov. John Hickenlooper has tipped his hand that he’s likely to push for Medicaid expansion. In documents presented Wednesday to the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, the governor’s staff wrote: “we are likely to opt in to the expansion.” The governor insisted that the decision to expand rests solely with his office, a contention that lawmakers challenged. “Whether they can expand without additional legislation from the General Assembly is a little ambiguous,” said Eric Kurtz, a Joint Budget Committee analyst who briefed lawmakers. “I think they’re planning to work with the General Assembly. I think they’re just being cautious about…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, unveiled legislation on Wednesday that would establish universal health care in Colorado. Aguilar designed her bill as an amendment to the Colorado Constitution. That means she would need to get support from two-thirds of members in the state Senate and House along with the governor’s signature. Then, at the soonest, Coloradans would weigh in on the referendum next November. “I want to put something on our ballot in front of our voters. We can try to do it in a different way in Colorado,” Aguilar said. “Here’s the conundrum…when people come to…