I spent my career as a public librarian ensuring my community had the freedom to learn and access information about the systems and conditions that affect our everyday lives. As an older adult with chronic conditions, the high cost of prescription drugs and our health care system greatly impacts both my financial security and my […]
Medicare
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: More price controls are the wrong Rx for health care in Colorado
While impeachment dominates the national news cycle, one policy debate lingers just below the surface: how to deal with “surprise medical bills.” One proposal would use the heavy hand of government to impose price controls on treatments subject to surprise billing. Doctors and providers are adamantly opposed, favoring alternative solutions. Over the summer and fall, millions […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Let’s stop choosing between buying food or healthcare. The urgent need for Medicare-for-all
According to a recent Colorado Health Institute report for the Colorado Strategic Action Planning Group on Aging, over half a million Coloradans serve as unpaid caregivers for individuals over the age of 50. Many of these caregivers simultaneously work for hard-earned paychecks in jobs outside of their caregiving responsibilities. However, caregiving often has a negative […]
Posted inHealth, Politics and Government
Michael Bennet says he’s shifting national health care debate. But even in his home state, there’s pushback.
Michael Bennet is predicating his improbable presidential campaign on the issue of health care — more specifically, the need for a public insurance option and not a “Medicare for All” system. The Colorado senator has lambasted Medicare for All as a “lousy policy” with no chance for passage and enough political baggage to doom the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Health care is a right, not just for the privileged
Sometimes you just have to take a leap into the unknown when you see that the status quo is simply not working. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did just that when he signed Social Security into law. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson did the same with Medicare, which provides health care to all Americans […]
Posted inNews, Opinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Congress should save Coloradans from sky-high air ambulance charges
At the moment, Congress is considering the Lower Health Care Cost Act, proposed by the Senate HELP Committee. It is an important step toward protecting patients from excessive air ambulance charges. The draft bill would cap out-of-network rates to the local median negotiated in-network rate for the same insurer, thereby protecting patients with little negotiating power […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Health insurance companies want lower premiums. But here’s why they’re so high.
Gov. Jared Polis recently announced massive reductions in premiums due to the reinsurance program passed by the legislature this year. For some areas of Colorado, residents buying health care coverage on the individual market could see reductions of 18% – 40% in their premiums for 2020. As health plans, we were delighted to see such […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Michael Bennet has a warning for Democrats. But it’s not clear how many are listening.
A month before Michael Bennet entered the presidential race, joining a score of Democratic candidates vying to challenge President Donald Trump, he voiced the biggest challenge his eventual campaign would encounter: The tendency in his own party to gravitate toward the end of the ideological spectrum and reach for the easy answer. “I think that […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News
In rural Colorado, emergency medical services struggle to keep money-losing ambulances rolling
When flames shot from the third-story balcony of a downtown Frisco condo this spring, a firefighter riding in an ambulance got there first, zipping a block over from patrol on Main Street, scoping a plan of attack and attaching the first hose the moment a full fire engine arrived. In tiny Holyoke, population 2,215, when […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Their foster kids can be prone to violent outbursts, but these parents remain devoted. They need our help.
I spend a fair amount of time with foster families. Foster families are a unique population of caregivers who allow children who have been removed from their homes to stabilize, heal and stay connected to community with the ultimate goal of enabling them to safely and sustainably return to their biological families whenever possible. Over […]