Healthcare

We passed legislation to lower the cost of health care, address prescription drug prices, alleviate the opioid epidemic, and increase access to mental health and improve public safety.

Lower Cost of Healthcare

  • State Innovation Waiver Reinsurance Program: HB19-1168
    • This bill will help reduce insurance premiums on the individual market by 15-30% by helping insurers with high-cost insurance claims, providing much-needed relief to hardworking Coloradans across the state, many of whom are paying up to a third of their income on monthly premiums. Our state, and in particular the Western Slope, has some of the highest health insurance costs in the country.
  • Proposal For Affordable Health Coverage Option: HB19-1004
    • HB19-1004 will start developing a publicly supported health insurance option to help put affordable health insurance in reach for many hardworking families across our state. The public option can leverage the efficiencies of our current state infrastructure for greater savings, and will have a goal of becoming available for purchase by Coloradans as soon as the fall of 2020.
  • Address High-cost Health Insurance Pilot Program: SB19-004
    • SB19-004 focuses on healthcare cooperatives, which aim to lower healthcare costs by encouraging consumers to negotiate rates on a collective basis directly with providers and offer plans to individuals, businesses, and other groups that are more affordable than what currently exists on the market. The bill will strengthen Colorado’s laws to allow coops to incorporate consumer protections like coverage for preexisting conditions, and will allow the State Insurance Commissioner to work with groups seeking to create co-ops so that they can get up and running as soon as possible.
  • Limiting Out-of-Network Billing: HB19-1174
    • Establishes safeguards around out-of-network health care costs including limiting the amount that a consumer can be charged for out-of-network care. These charges can be more than 30 times the average in-network rate, and can be particularly devastating for consumers because they are often unexpected.
  • Reduce Insulin Costs: HB19-1216
    • Requires insurance carriers to reduce the cost of insulin drugs for their consumers to no more than $100 for a month’s supply of insulin. Directs the Attorney General to investigate the pricing of prescription insulin drugs and report back to the legislature about whether additional consumer protections are needed for the over 420,000 Coloradans who have diabetes.
  • Prescription Drug Cost Education: HB19-1131
    • Prescription drug costs are out of control and can be a major source of stress on Coloradans’ household budgets. This bill increases transparency in drug pricing by requiring drug manufacturers and sellers to provide prescribers with more information about the actual costs of the drug.
  • Investments in Primary Care: HB19-1233
    • The goal of primary care is to achieve better health outcomes by improving the quality and consistency of care so that both patients and the healthcare system overall can see a reduction in costs. This bill aims to increase the usage of primary care by starting a working collaborative group to identify reforms for primary care payment and establish affordability standards for premiums, including adding goals for carrier investments in primary care.
  • Hospital Community Benefit Accountability: HB19-1320
    • This bill will increase transparency of hospital investments in community health to allow the state to compare this spending on an apples-to-apples basis and encourage more hospitals to invest in the things that count.
  • Creation of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee: HB19-1122
    • Colorado’s maternal mortality rate has doubled since 2008. This bill creates a maternal mortality review committee to study the causes of maternal deaths and postpartum deaths up to one year after birth, and to make recommendations for policies to help prevent these tragedies from occurring.
  • Import Prescription Drugs from Canada: SB19-005
    • To help lower the cost of prescription drugs, this bill requires the state to design and, if approved by the federal government, implement a program to import certain lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada for sale to Colorado consumers.

Opioid Epidemic and Substance Abuse

  • Prevention of Substance Use Disorders: SB19-228
    • Establishes several measures to prevent substance use disorders, including requiring warning labels on prescriptions, prohibiting physicians from accepting benefits for prescribing specific medications, and creating a pilot program for on-the-ground intervention and screening resources for families and mothers.
  • Recovery for Substance Use Disorders: HB19-1009
    • Expands housing for vulnerable Coloradans who are recovering from a substance use disorder by expanding the housing assistance voucher program. This will allow individuals with substance use disorders who are transitioning out of mental health institutes, or who are in unstable housing environments and are transitioning out of residential treatment programs, to be eligible for these vouchers.
  • Harm Reduction Substance Use Disorders: SB19-227
    • Creates and expands substance use disorder treatment programs across the state; expands access to opioid antagonists in schools and wherever automated external defibrillators are available in order to combat overdoses; specifies that certain hospitals may be used as clean syringe exchange sites; and expands the household medication take-back program to help people safely dispose of extra medications.
  • Expand Medication-assisted Treatment Pilot Program: SB19-001
    • Extends the Medication-Assisted Treatment Pilot Program for an additional two years, increases program funding, expands the list of eligible participants, and expands it from only Pueblo and Routt counties to additional counties in the San Luis Valley.

Mental Health and Public Safety

  • Mental Health Parity Insurance Medicaid: HB19-1269
    • This bill holds insurers accountable to current state and federal parity laws that require treating mental health and addiction equal to physical health care. This will encourage patient use of mental health services and boost screening for mental health disorders in other areas of care.
  • Extreme Risk Protection Orders: HB19-1177
    • Allows for a family member, household member, or policy officer to petition the court for a temporary extreme risk protection order. A preponderance of evidence must be demonstrated that the individual poses a significant danger to himself or to others by owning or acquiring a firearm.
  • Youth Mental Health Education And Suicide Prevention: HB19-1120
    • Allows for minors of twelve years of age to seek psychotherapy with or without the consent of their guardians. Requires the mental health professional discuss the importance of notifying the parents or guardians. Requires that if the professional believes the minor is in imminent danger of committing suicide that the parents or guardians be informed.