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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.
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.
This has been a year of failed attempts to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the fight is not over. On Friday, the Trump administration released new rules that could spell big changes for at least 53,000 Colorado women.
The regulations overturn the Obama-era mandate requiring employers offering health insurance benefits to include birth control in the coverage (with limited exceptions). Under the proposed changes, any company — large or small, public or private — can request a moral or religious exemption to the mandate and stop covering birth control.
For the first time in nearly 11 months, it’s probably safe for advocates of health coverage to exhale. At least for a moment.
Back in July, the last time Republicans in the U.S. Senate nearly repealed major portions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) but failed at the last minute, the Colorado Health Institute published a blog title “Obituary for the Undead.” The blog warned that the repeal bill was still alive and could be taken up again at any moment.
State officials have announced that prices on Colorado’s individual market for 2018 health plans will rise an average of 26.7 percent.
The Affordable Care Act stabilization plan offered by Democratic governor John Hickenlooper and Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, falls squarely into the “keep and fix” camp.
The debate over the Affordable Care Act has overshadowed another important congressional decision: the September 30 deadline to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
All this year, it seems like I’ve been reading obituaries for bills that won’t die.
The Obamacare era is over! The House Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal is dead! Sen. John McCain cast the deciding vote to repeal the ACA! Wait, McCain cast the deciding vote to save the ACA!
My colleagues at the Colorado Health Institute and I have even written some of these obits ourselves.
It’s a new day, with a new Senate bill.
And the same story.
The first version of a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was introduced early this year, and ever since that day, we at the Colorado Health Institute (CHI) have encouraged people to pay special attention to Medicaid. That’s still the case for the latest version of the bill that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released today.