Health Care
Colorado insurance commissioner blames Trump administration for uncertainty, 27% rate hike requests
DENVER – Colorado’s insurance commissioner is blaming the Trump administration for playing games with the health care market and saying it is causing instability in the insurance marketplace that might be to blame for large premium hike requests for operators in the state for 2018.
The Colorado Division of Insurance on Friday released the premium rate request hikes for individual and small group markets operating on Colorado’s health insurance exchange, Connect for Health Colorado, for 2018. Continue reading
Cory Gardner ‘carefully reviewing’ new Senate health care bill; Bennet wants to start over
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner says he’s “carefully reviewing” the revised Senate health care draft discussion bill released Thursday as several of his fellow Senate Republican colleagues sit on the fence on the revisions, putting in question whether or not the bill will make it to a floor vote next week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., took the Senate’s version of the bill aimed at “repealing and replacing” the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, back to the drawing board after a handful of Republicans said they wouldn’t even support bringing the Senate’s initial bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, to the floor for debate. Continue reading
Mike Coffman presents proposal to fix Obamacare to House GOP, Gardner; will hinge on Senate bill
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman presented his new plan to alter the Affordable Care Act to House Republicans and also discussed it with Sen. Cory Gardner, who told his fellow Republican he’d pass the plan onto Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Coffman says he spoke with House Speaker Paul Ryan one-on-one about the proposal last night, and again today in front of the House Republican Conference at a 9 a.m. ET meeting. Continue reading
Republican Congressman Mike Coffman proposes new approach to address Medicaid, health care bills
DENVER – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican, is offering up a three-pronged approach to break up the provisions of the health care and tax-related measures in the GOP versions of the bills aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in order to try and garner more bipartisan support to fix some provisions of the ACA.
Coffman voted against the House version of the bill, the American Health Care Act, when the lower chamber of Congress passed the bill onto the Senate by a narrow vote in early May. Continue reading
Some face police interference charges in protest at Cory Gardner’s office; building manager ID’d
DENVER – The 10 disability advocates arrested Thursday evening at the Denver office of U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., were all in the process of being released from jail Friday afternoon, save one woman who was not admitted to Denver’s jail because of her medical condition.
The Denver Police Department criminal complaints for those arrested all say that Andrew Merritt, who is Gardner’s state director for Colorado, was the person who advised police that the advocates were to be removed from the building. The reports say police were notified at 6:44 p.m. Continue reading
Disability advocates continue sit-in at Cory Gardner’s office over healthcare bill, won’t be removed
DENVER – A group of advocates, many of whom who are disabled, continue to protest at U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s office nearly 24 hours after they took up residency to demand the Republican senator from Colorado vote against the Senate health care bill.
Many of the protesters are from ADAPT/Atlantis Community, Inc., a Denver-based group whose efforts are usually focused on increasing accessibility for disabled people on public transit systems. Continue reading
Hickenlooper comments on health care process show some of disconnect between parties
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s bipartisan push to block congressional Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act reached a fever pitch Tuesday morning at a news conference he held with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, just hours before the Senate majority announced it would delay a vote on its version of the health care bill because it didn’t have the votes to bring it to the floor.
There was some question about whether Hickenlooper and Colorado’s Republican senator, Cory Gardner, had even talked about the bill earlier Tuesday after Hickenlooper made comments hinting that they hadn’t talked at a National Press Club news conference Tuesday morning. Continue reading
CBO: Senate healthcare bill leaves 22M fewer insured by 2026, but more deficit-friendly than House’s
DENVER – The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the Senate’s health care bill will leave 22 million people who currently have insurance under the Affordable Care Act without it over the next 10 years—a slight improvement on the 23 million people who would lose insurance under the House version of the bill scored in May.
But the CBO estimates that 15 million people will lose insurance next year alone when compared to those insured under the Affordable Care Act. The CBO estimated 14 million people would lose insurance in 2018 under the House version of the bill. Continue reading
Trump signs ‘historic’ VA oversight bill supported by all of Colorado’s congressional delegation
DENVER – President Donald Trump on Friday signed a bill supported by all of Colorado’s congressional delegation aimed at making it easier to fire bad Veterans Affairs employees and protect whistleblowers after several high-profile scandals over the past several years.
The VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 passed the Senate on June 7 with support from both of Colorado’s senators, Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner.
It passed the House on June 13, with all of Colorado’s House of Representatives members from both sides of the aisle voting in favor of the bill.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., fulfills one of the president’s campaign promises of dismissing employees at the VA “who let our veterans down,” he said at Friday’s bill signing ceremony, promising more VA reform in the future.
“What happened was a national disgrace and yet some of the employees involved in these scandals remained on the payrolls,” Trump said at the signing, according to NPR.
“After multiple scandals at the VA, Congress worked in a bipartisan fashion and passed additional reforms that will have a real impact on our nation’s veterans,” Gardner said Friday.
Gardner, Bennet and Coffman have all lauded the bill in recent weeks.
Bennet said the bill “encourages managers and patients to address poor performance and misconduct of VA employees and grants more oversight of the department.”
He and Gardner last year worked an amendment into the national defense budget that ordered the Government Accountability Office to study the VA’s oversight over construction projects, including the plagued Aurora VA hospital, which is running years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget.
The bill also comes three years after several veterans died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital and other centers across the country as some VA employees covered up the lengthy wait times.
Gardner said upon the Senate’s passage of the bill that he was “thrilled” and that he looked forward to the president signing the bill.
Coffman called the bill’s passage in the House a “significant step in the right direction.”
The bill was the 40th piece of legislation so far signed by President Trump, according to NPR, though the majority of those pieces have repealed Obama administration policies or modified already-existing programs.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Cory Gardner taking ‘first’ look at health care bill he helped create; Dems slam bill and process
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Thursday that he was taking his first look at the Senate’s version of the replacement for the Affordable Care Act, which he helped craft, and that the bill “deserves serious debate, not knee-jerk reaction.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released the 142-page discussion draft of the Senate’s health care bill, which they have dubbed the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017, Thursday morning after weeks of anticipation and fervor over what has so far been a secretive process without any open committee hearings. Continue reading