Our Work
It’s Valentine’s week, and what better way to celebrate the importance of relationships, communication and compromise than with a look into Colorado’s 2018 legislative session?
Let’s look at some early-session stats:
In the first year terminally ill Coloradans could legally end their lives with the assistance of a prescription drug, Colorado appears to be mirroring the experiences of other states where aid in dying is legal.
In 2017, most of the 69 prescriptions were written for people over the age of 55 struggling with cancer, heart disease or ALS, the degenerative neurological disorder. The vast majority of patients who died after seeking a prescription were white, under hospice care and residents of Front Range cities or suburbs.
The odds were long. At the start of the fifth open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces last November, there was every reason to believe that enrollment would fall off a cliff in 2018.
Gov. John Hickenlooper celebrated the achievements of the Affordable Care Act and lamented the crisis of high health care costs. But he did not lay out an agenda to rein in prices.
It’s hard to escape partisan political rhetoric these days, and the Colorado legislature — despite being hailed for its “purple” nature and ability to compromise — won’t be a refuge in 2018.
The dawn of the 2018 legislation session brings a mix of optimism and skepticism. Legislators want to make progress on fighting Colorado’s substance use epidemic, but political obstacles might stand in the way for other priorities.
Who could have predicted this year, really?
Here at the Colorado Health Institute, we expected that the new Trump administration, combined with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, would bring a swift end to the Affordable Care Act.
But we’re closing in on the 2017 finish line, and the ACA is still limping along. That’s a surprise. It’s also surprising that the ACA’s individual mandate was killed in the tax reform bill. We didn’t see that one coming until just before it happened.
2017’s Hot Issues in Health conference confronted divides and sought to bridge the gaps. We talked about everything from the managed care model for Medicaid and behavioral health integration to the role of competition and what you — as a health care consumer and policymaker — can do when navigating an overwhelming and expensive health care system.
An Analysis of Affordable Care Act Tax Penalty Data
The Denver Post invited CHI to write the centerpiece article for a special Perspective section titled Fixing Obamacare.