Tag: amycare

After much speculation, Republican Rep. and U.S. Senate hopeful Amy Stephens went ahead and half-defended her support of the Colorado health care exchange today when Rep. Janak Joshi brought a measure to repeal the exchange before the Public Health Care & Human Services committee, which Stephens sits on.

DENVER -- Vicki Tosher, now 61, knows a lot about cancer. She has survived two kinds of breast cancer and she was a University of Colorado researcher in cancer prevention. She lost her job in 2009, and 18 months later, she lost her health insurance.

Rep. Amy Stephens -- a Colorado Springs Republican who once worked for evangelical powerhouse organization Focus on the Family -- argued Tuesday against an anti-abortion proposal that would have made providing emergency contraception to victims of rape and incest a Class 3 felony.

DENVER— The political battle in Colorado over abortion, women’s healthcare and family planning heated up Monday when lawmakers, activist groups and supporters on opposite sides of the issues took turns rallying on the west steps of the capitol here.

Colorado House Majority Leader Amy Stephens is feeling the heat – not from sweltering summer temperatures but instead from the sizzling tempers of Republican "anarchists" who think the Monument legislator has violated conservative and constitutional values. They seem bent on anointing a warrior to defeat Stephens in 2012 – the frontrunner is Kanda Calef.

A bill to create health insurance exchanges in Colorado passed out of the Senate today, becoming one of the few bills to make it through the fires of Tea Party and other conservative groups this year. While Republicans largely voted against the bill, it passed with no discussion in the Democratically controlled Senate and is now on its way to the governor's desk.

SB 200, Colorado's health insurance exchange bill, christened "Amycare" after House sponsor Amy Stephens by its detractors, was rushed through committee in a two-day sprint that ended with it exiting the house on a 44-21 vote. The bill's passage came under threats of recalls for Republicans voting for the bill.