Think of health policymaking like those old-timey variety show videos of people spinning a bunch of plates at once. There’s just a ton going on, and focusing only on one thing will cause the rest of the apparatus to come crashing down. This, in a tortured-metaphor kind of way, explains why health policy experts say […]
Affordable Care Act
Posted inElection 2020, Health, News, Politics and Government
Cory Gardner wants to get rid of Obamacare. But it’s not clear what he plans to replace it with.
Cory Gardner doesn’t like Obamacare. Ask the Republican senator from Colorado about how to improve health care and the first response you’re likely to hear is that President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 Affordable Care Act needs to be repealed. It’s “destroying this country,” he once said. Ask Gardner for his plans to replace the law, […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Opposition to Obamacare becomes political liability for Cory Gardner and other Republican incumbents
By Markian Hawryluk, Kaiser Health News In the 2014 elections, Republicans rode a wave of anti-Affordable Care Act sentiment to pick up nine Senate seats, the largest gain for either party since 1980. Newly elected Republicans such as Cory Gardner in Colorado and Steve Daines in Montana had hammered their Democratic opponents over the health […]
Posted inHealth, News
A Colorado veteran had appendicitis. But the fight over his hospital bill may have been worse.
By Elizabeth Lawrence, Kaiser Health News In late August 2019, Shannon Harness awoke to serious pain in the lower right side of his abdomen — a telltale sign of appendicitis. He booked it to the emergency room of the only hospital in the county: Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida, Colorado. After a […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Hickenlooper: Our plan to fight for a healthier future for all Coloradans
Nothing reinforces the need for quality, affordable and accessible health care like our current public health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how far we have to go to reach universal coverage that ensures equity and provides health care providers the resources they need. It is ridiculous that people are charged hundreds of dollars […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: This is the year to flip control of the Senate and protect reproductive rights
Earlier this month the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision on the major birth control case Trump v. Pennsylvania, giving the go-ahead to a new Trump administration rule allowing virtually any employer or university to declare itself exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s landmark requirement that health insurers cover birth control without co-pays. The decision […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A fellow Republican asks — where did Cory Gardner’s integrity go?
When I came of age politically in the mid-1970s, the nation was recovering from the Watergate scandal that shook confidence in our constitutional system of government. Fortunately, some key Republican members of Congress put our country above their party. Republican Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee and House members Lawrence Hogan of Maryland, Hamilton Fish of […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Democrats just proposed an enormous change to how health insurance programs are funded
In a budget-panicked, coronavirus-interrupted legislative session that has already seen major proposals for how health insurance should work in the state come and go, Colorado lawmakers have just proposed another massive change. Senate Bill 215 would create a new fee on the health insurance premiums paid by close to a million people in the state. […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Lackadaisical health coverage response at federal level puts us all at prolonged risk with coronavirus
It should be stating the obvious that access to health insurance and health care is crucial to our ability to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and we must ensure that cost is not a barrier to coverage or testing and treatment. Unfortunately, this crisis is exposing gaps and challenges in our health care systems. Over 50% […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Employer-based insurance is a crumbling defense against a global pandemic
The losses inflicted by SARS-Cov-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, have been staggering. In the U.S., over 555,000 have fallen ill, more than 22,000 have perished, and even our most optimistic models suggest we should steel ourselves for a grim course through at least the end of summer. In Colorado, prior to Gov. Jared […]