Tag: Work and Poverty

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.

Nearly a quarter of the stimulus aid assigned to rural areas— most of it in loan guarantees for home buyers— has actually gone to...

The Rocky Mountain PBS blog Panorama interviewed Colorado Independent writing fellow Katie Redding this week about a bill sponsored by Denver Rep. Jerry Frangas...

Blogger Smintheus writing at Unbossed.com throws light on a new twist in the effort to write passable health reform legislation. Senate Dems, concerned that...

Colorado women offered small-group health insurance plans or looking to buy plans on the individual market and expecting them to cover birth control should be sure to read the fine print. Plans vary widely on the birth control coverage they provide, and the reasoning guiding the products on offer is often unclear. What's more, denials of service are often buried in contract sections newcomers to the market are likely to skim or not read at all.

When commercial pilot Matt Temme of Castle Rock was furloughed by his employer last June, he lost his health insurance. Temme's wife had coverage through her employer, but adding Temme and his son would have cost $800 a month— an expensive proposition for a family who had just lost a portion of their income. So Temme went looking on the individual market for insurance. He's a healthy 41-year-old. His son is a healthy 6-year-old. "I never imagined I would have a problem," he said.

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.

For millions of unemployed workers, the recession is poised to go from bad to worse. More than 3.2 million laid-off Americans will prematurely exhaust their unemployment insurance in the first quarter of next year unless Congress intervenes, an advocacy group warned Monday.

In advance of a bill in the state legislature that would require Colorado’s insurance companies to cover maternity, The Colorado Independent searched for non-employer-based maternity health insurance. How did it go? It was unbelievably frustrating.

WASHINGTON-- As legislators streamed into the room around him, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, peered over his glasses at the roughly 60 people who’d come to this special hearing. “I’m glad to see this turnout so early in the day,” said Smith. (The hearing began at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday) “Today’s hearing is an opportunity for Republicans to move forward on this issue of importance to the American people.”