By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Surveys of nearly 700 Coloradans found they support the states new health insurance exchange, but found they want hands-on help to make sense of the online market slated to go into effect in 2014. A navigator system is critical, said Danny Katz, director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group Foundation, CoPIRG, one of the groups that conducted focus group meetings in October and November at 53 sites across Colorado. People liked the idea of comparing health plans (online), but said, we need to have an ability to talk to somebody to get advice, Katz said….
News - Part 32
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon As a child growing up in Denver and Sudan, Ali Khalifa used to carry a little white doctors bag with a red cross and a toy stethoscope. His parents were diplomats who traveled the world. Suffering through multiple bouts of malaria as a child in Sudan, Khalifa admired uncles who were doctors and cared for him in their homes as he struggled through weeks of fever and nausea. Seeing that spirit of compassion and sacrifice left a life-long impression on me, Khalifa said. Now 24, Khalifas dream of becoming a doctor moved one step closer to…
Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The 911 call came too late. Fresh out of rehab, Leo Espinosa told his mother he was ready to kick his heroin habit for good. “I had seen it in his eyes. That’s what he wanted. He wanted to be able to stay away from it. But he just yearned for it,” said Helen Alvillar. The two talked on a Tuesday morning in 2008. Espinosa sounded optimistic. He planned to look for a new job. That night, Alvillar got a call from the coroner’s office. They told her that her son had died from a drug overdose….
By Vicki Cowart Like many women across Colorado and the nation, I am outraged and perplexed about the birth control debate taking place in todays political climate. First, there was the all-male congressional hearing on the Obama Administrations new birth control benefit that ensures women have access to birth control with no costly co-pays, regardless of where they work. The Republican Congressional leaders refused to let any woman speak in support of the new birth control benefit during that hearing. In fact, they said that a woman affected by the policy wasnt appropriate or qualified to speak on the issues….
By Diane Carman Michael Pollen, one of the high priests of the trendy local, organic food movement, is brutally honest about its real impact on the American diet. As a percentage of food production, he said, its still in the single digits. Despite high-profile advocates from Chez Panisse celebrity chef Alice Waters to First Lady Michelle Obama, the industrial food production system still reigns supreme. For those who do harvest lettuce or fresh eggs from backyard gardens, buy peaches from a farmers market and cook dinner at home instead of picking it up at a fast-food drive-through, the benefits go…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Many Coloradans with jobs say they can no longer afford health insurance, a new analysis from the Colorado Health Access Survey has found. Nearly one-third of Coloradans more than 1.5 million people are either uninsured or underinsured, according to the initial survey results that were released in November. New analysis shows that 85 percent of uninsured Coloradans say they dont have health insurance because its too expensive. Job loss and poverty used to be the key causes for poor health coverage. But the landscape in Colorado is changing dramatically. Today, a good job no longer guarantees…
By Mark Wolf Eleven cantaloupes rested on the produce display in a suburban supermarket earlier this week. Steps away, sliced cantaloupe was among the fruit arrayed in a ready-to-eat party tray. Soon, surely, a shopper will heft one of the cantaloupes, inspect it briefly to make sure the stem end isnt rough and there are no soft spots, then place it into a cart next to a bunch of asparagus. Perhaps the shoppers mind will flash back to last summer when cantaloupes made headlines for all the wrong reasons: recall, outbreak, listeria, illness, death. These cantaloupes bear stickers indicating they…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The battle over contraception has escalated in Colorado with Planned Parenthood officials calling out Colorados Attorney General for opposing federal birth control mandates. Attorney General John Suthers signed a letter this month along with 11 other attorneys general demanding a reversal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services new requirement that health plans offer birth control coverage. We strongly oppose the unconstitutional approach taken by the proposed contraceptive coverage mandate, the letter reads. We believe it represents an impermissible violation of the Constitutions First Amendment virtually unparalleled in American history. Tapping into the rage…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon of Solutions Hes 16 but his baby face makes him look a little older than 10, his age when he first tried marijuana. I smoke marijuana every single day all day long, the teen said during a lunch period spent hanging out in a park outside his downtown Colorado Springs high school. It develops brain cells. That is a complete and true fact, he said. It kills weak brain cells. It does affect your lungs but its better than smoking cigarettes. Dozens of students interviewed across Colorado as part of an investigation by Education News Colorado,…
Medical marijuana banned on school grounds Dont expect to see students or teachers or other staff members legally smoking or consuming marijuana on school grounds, even if they possess medical marijuana cards.The Colorado Association of School Boards certainly wont be drawing up sample model policies to permit sanctioned use of the drug on campuses, said Brad Stauffer, associate executive director. In fact, Colorado school districts have begun to adopt policies that specifically spell out the opposite. We feel the laws in place clearly support what our policies say, that is, that the use of medical marijuana is prohibited in schools,…