Tag: Medicaid

A new bill that would mandate Colorado insurance companies to cover birth control and maternity care is aimed at addressing the conditions that place Colorado among the worst states in the nation when it comes to providing for reproductive health.

A bill proposed for the next legislative session would improve a state loan-repayment program for rural health professionals with the aim of attracting more providers to rural areas. The Colorado Rural Health Center (CRHC), the Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN) and the Governor’s office are jointly proposing the bill, according to Terri Hurst, policy analyst at CRHC. She expected it to be sponsored by Representative Sara Gagliardi, D-Arvada, and Senator John Morse D-Colorado Springs.

Democratic leaders face a major decision now on health care reform-- yet another one this year that will throw into relief the interests that compete in American representative democracy. They have to choose between either closing the "doughnut hole" and offering full coverage for millions of low-income seniors on Medicare who need to buy prescription drugs or sticking to a deal they made with the nation's major drug companies. According to the deal, the government agrees not to use its bulk buying power to lower the cost of drugs, so long as the drug companies dole out $80 billion over the next decade to subsidize health reform.

At last week's Colorado Voices for Coverage conference, state lawmakers outlined their own solutions to fix the health care system, including Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, who explained for the crowd how she and her two daughters joined the growing ranks of the uninsured Americans for eight months and wracked up $14,000 in medical bills.

It’s a nonsensical element of Medicaid’s funding formula that during economic downturns, when state budgets are most squeezed, states are also asked to bear...

The Washington Independent wrote recently about the oddity of congressional Republicans blasting the thought of creating a public plan while at the same time...

The Denver Post reprinted an AP article on Sunday that proclaimed: "Democrats say Grand Junction is a model for learning how to lower health...

This year is the 55th birthday of the birth control pill. It is also 44 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decriminalized birth control in Griswold v. Connecticut. Yet, debates over family planning and contraception are alive and widespread. Coloradans witnessed this first hand last fall when the "personhood" amendment that could have re-criminalized birth control in the state was defeated. Similar measures have already been introduced in seven other states so far this year.

Suffering the recession’s painful squeeze, more states are eying cuts to low-income health care programs to salvage their budgets.

Colorado's Medicaid enrollment is on a decline for the first time in nearly 10 years. State workers say identification rules are slowing the process...