Colorado is trying to become one of the first states in the nation to import prescription drugs from Canada, a bid to give consumers relief from soaring pharmaceutical costs. A bill making its way through the General Assembly with the support of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis would create a program to start importation by 2022. […]
health insurance
Posted inCrime and Courts, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado joins lawsuit against Trump administration’s effort to increase Obamacare birth-control exemptions
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time challenging its efforts to increase birth-control exemptions under the Affordable Care Act. The legal action was one Weiser, a Democrat, promised in January to join. The lawsuit is currently pending in federal court in California, and includes more than a […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
A state board wouldn’t approve a major report accusing Colorado hospitals of shifting costs onto people with private insurance
Hospital representatives on a little-known state Medicaid board revolted Tuesday and refused to endorse a government report that argues Colorado hospitals have reaped billions of dollars in extra revenues by ratcheting up prices on people with private insurance. The report, released in draft form last month by the state’s Department of Health Care Policy and […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Summit County health care prices force families to make desperate decisions. A new plan for how consumers buy coverage could change that.
FRISCO — To Devon Howe-Czar, it was a nightmare scenario: A few weeks ago, one of her twin 7-year-old daughters fell while skiing. She was raced down the hill on a toboggan to a nurse’s station at the base, but from there Howe-Czar had to make a choice that confronts far too many families living […]
Posted inHealth, News
Here’s how Colorado insurance regulators quietly undermined a Trump administration rule on health coverage
So let’s just get this out there: This is a story ostensibly about health insurance regulations — which normally wouldn’t send a tingle up many people’s spines. But really it’s a story about an ongoing, hidden battle camouflaged in hundreds of pages of regulatory documents. Last summer, the Trump administration fired a shot at the […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
As their revenues grew, Colorado hospitals pushed costs onto privately insured patients and reaped billions, according to a new state report
Colorado hospitals could have passed on savings to consumers of as much as $11.5 billion over a nine-year period if they had better contained costs and lowered their margins, according to an explosive new state report. The report seems to indicate the administration of Gov. Jared Polis will take an aggressive line against hospitals in […]
Posted inHealth, News
Democrats — including in Colorado — roll out big health care proposals across U.S.
By Sally Ho and Geoff Mulvhihill, The Associated Press SEATTLE — Riding the momentum from November’s elections, Democratic leaders in the states, including Colorado, are wasting no time delivering on their biggest campaign promise — to expand access to health care and make it more affordable. The first full week of state legislative sessions and swearings-in […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
11 charts that help explain health care costs in Colorado
When the 2019 legislative session gets underway on Friday, health care — especially how much money goes into health care — will be among the most active topics of debate. Gov.-elect Jared Polis has vowed to take on prescription drug prices and also rejigger how insurance rates are calculated. Hospitals are girding for fights over […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Health, News
Communities in the Colorado high country, hit hard by soaring premiums, offer medical cost-sharing programs to ease burden
VAIL — Chris Romer has watched families in the Vail Valley writhe under mortgage-sized payments for medical insurance. He’s watched state legislators and regulators fail to stem the soaring costs of health insurance in the Colorado high country, where a family policy easily tops $2,000 a month. And with the pending departure of the Affordable […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
What is Medicare-X, Michael Bennet’s big idea to fix the American health insurance market?
Amid rumblings that he might be considering a run for president — and amid his not exactly saying “no” to questions of whether he is — Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet is giving a new push to his grand idea for fixing America’s health insurance market. He calls it Medicare-X — “the best name I […]