Reporting 35,000 new registrants, the controversial government-guided health insurance plan marks a ground shift in the health care industry
public option
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado should vote on a publicly funded, privately delivered health care system
We can cover all of our health care needs, spend less, and have better care. Getting there requires the gumption to make a simple, but fundamental change to how we pay for health care. Little steps won’t get us there. Shining a light on the way, on September 1, the Colorado Health Care Cost Savings […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Five moments that defined Colorado’s 2021 legislative session
Every legislative session in Colorado has its defining moments, but not every legislative session happens with a global pandemic as the backdrop. And an economic downturn. And a contentious national election. And two mass shootings. And a national reckoning about race. So when a tornado even ripped through Weld County in the final hours of […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Democrats’ big health care bill is headed to the governor’s desk to be signed into law
The Colorado legislature on Monday night sent a sweeping bill intended to drive down health care costs to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk, achieving an elusive goal for Democrats and launching the state into an experiment that could provide a roadmap for the rest of the country. House Bill 1232 passed the General Assembly without the […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Democrats’ big health insurance bill was amended 21 times. Here’s how it has changed.
It was a public option bill, and then it wasn’t. It required the health care industry to cut costs by 20% at one point, but now that figure has been slashed by a quarter. For weeks, the legislation threatened doctors with fines and licensing consequences if they didn’t participate in the initiative, but now physicians […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Democrats’ big health insurance bill may deliver the nation’s lowest premiums. But much is still unclear.
In 2014, a thunderbolt struck the normally un-sizzling world of Colorado health policy: A report from the nationally respected Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that Western Slope resort communities had the highest prices for health insurance in the country. What followed was more than five years of work by lawmakers to lower costs, culminating this year […]
Posted inCartoons, Opinion
Jim Morrissey: Stop me if you’ve heard the one about the public health insurance option…
More cartoons from The Colorado Sun.
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Dark-money group spends record amount lobbying against Colorado Democrats’ effort to shrink health care costs
A national nonprofit working against Colorado Democrats’ bill to drive down health care costs in the state is setting spending records, with a dark-money nonprofit dropping nearly $560,000 to oppose the measure over a nine-month period. Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, funded by hospitals, insurers and other business interests, is now the top single-year […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Colorado Democrats drop public health insurance option to pursue state-regulated plan instead after industry pushback
Colorado Democrats this week will offer a sweeping amendment that seeks to dramatically rewrite their bill to decrease health care costs after weeks of negotiations with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and private insurers that stalled the legislation’s progress at the Capitol. If the amendment passes, some of the most powerful health care industry groups that have […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A Colorado public option for health care is a backwards step
Health care is both critically important and far too expensive. It is a problem that Colorado businesses and individual Coloradans struggle with, and one that we’re committed to helping solve. However, House Bill 1232, a proposal before the state legislature to create a new government-run health plan, is the wrong approach. Full of big and […]