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League of Women Voters^®
of Jefferson County, Colorado

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Health Care Reform Event RECAP. Letters. Recent Coverage of League Activity.

Health Care Reform Event RECAP

The LWV Jeffco held the end of the year General Meeting May 16, 2011 with a Health Care Panel addressing Colorado's implementation of national health care reform. The League's Health Care Services committee was composed of Beverly DeSanto, Elaine Olson, Janet Carlson, Kathy Reul, Marcia Schafer, Sandra Schuster, Tracy Kraft-Tharp, and Jane Banzin.
The panel delivered an informative hour and a half to the 80 men and women who attended. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, chair of the Health Care Services committee and from the Arvada Unit, introduced the panelists. After the presentation, she asked for a show of hands of those who knew more about Colorado's implementation of health care reform and the Exchange than when they came. There appeared to be a unanimous show of hands. The conversations and comments expressed as the crowd left suggested the panel had stimulated the curiosity and interest of attendees.
By January 1, 2014, implementation of Health Insurance Exchanges under the Affordable Care Act is to occur. The choices available to States are to create a state Exchange, create or join into a regional Exchange with other states, or to default to a federally designed Exchange.
The 1st panelist, Joan Henneberry, Colorado Health Exchange Director, described the development of the Exchange as a way to organize the health insurance market place. She described a virtual market place crafted to provide a better way to shop and compare product, price, and benefit. It offers the consumer a chance to:

Shop and compare on line
Contact a customer service call center with live operators
Make an appointment with a navigator who operates much like a broker. The navigator will be available for those who prefer to conduct their business face to face or do not have computer capability or access.
Utilize a new market place

The 2nd panelist, Senator Betty Boyd, said that Colorado is one of six states that have passed enabling legislation to create an Exchange. Senate Bill 200 "Health Benefits Exchange" was passed with a bipartisan, collaborative effort shepherded by Democratic State Senator Betty Boyd and Republican State Representative Amy Stephens.
The 3rd panelist, Lorez Meinhold, Colorado State Implementation Director, discussed the current status of implementation of health care reform in Colorado. She discussed funding issues for federal health care reform for underserved rural areas. She addressed how to get better value for our health care dollars and stated a need to shift provider compensation from a fee-for-service model to a prevention and wellness care model.
Lorez has put the national reform bill into four "buckets."
1.Coverage. How do we cover more people? There are currently 800,000 people uninsured in Colorado.
2.Cost Containment
3.Fraud and Abuse. For instance, we need better tools to detect Medicare fraud.
4.Insurer Accountability. Insurers need to do their business differently.
Only 6 states have moved towards developing their own Exchanges. Colorado's efforts toward implementation of health care reform have included changes such as:

Allow parents to cover their children through age 26.
Eliminate lifetime caps on coverage.
No more rescission of coverage. Once premium is accepted, coverage cannot be declined.
No more denials of coverage for children based on pre-existing conditions
As of 2014, insurers may not increase rates because of health status.

Of note, some of the conversation and inquiry from those attending this forum included:

There are no federal rules yet but there are two operational Exchanges, Utah and Massachusetts.
Size and sustainability of Exchanges are undetermined.
The insurance mandate requiring everyone to buy insurance is necessary for the health care reform and the Exchanges to be sustainable.
Penalties will be assessed for non-compliance of the insurance mandate via tax returns. The penalties are meant to motivate compliance but are priced so modestly that some may choose to not comply. If at some point they require care, they would be able to get it and be assessed the penalty. This will need to be reconsidered.
In 2014, Federal Employees go into the Exchange.
All state employees must have two federal options.
Because hospitals are required to treat you for emergencies, people utilizing the emergency room will have higher co-pays. Some hospitals have considered establishing primary care clinics where they will be able to redirect non-emergency care.
Health care utilization has been going down. Why? Some deductible amounts are high and must be met by the insured in order to get the service.
Under the care act, all preventive services are covered without deductibles and co-pays.
Basic Benefit Plan
What care are we utilizing? Lorez has made a copy of her PowerPoint available to the League. Please send a request to the League office at jeffcolwv@netzero.net, and Lopez's presentation will be mailed to you.

DISCLAIMER: All links on this site are provided for your convenience only. The League of Women Voters of Jefferson County exercises no control of the information or opinions contained on them. Provision of these links does not indicate an endorsement of their contents by the LWV Jeffco.

Letters to the Editor

DISCLAIMER: All links on this site are provided for your convenience only. The League of Women Voters of Jefferson County exercises no control of the information or opinions contained on them. Provision of these links does not indicate an endorsement of their contents by the LWV Jeffco.

Recent Coverage of League Activity

LEAGUE IN ACTION
On March 8, 2011, the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County co-sponsored a public forum on Economics & Education: Standing Together for Jeffco's Future. Here is a wrap-up of the event excerpted from the Colorado Public Radio website article provided by Great Education Colorado:
Kelly Johnson with the group Great Education Colorado wasn't sure what to expect when she started planning a budget forum and asked to use the theatre at Lakewood High School.
JOHNSON: "I was a little concerned when we put this together and asked Lakewood for such a large venue, because you never want it feel like a pin able to drop and be heard."
She needn't have worried. This past Tuesday evening, several hundred people filled the theatre's seats. Against a backdrop left over from a production of the musical Chicago, presenters told the story almost as dramatic -- what's happened to the state budget.
HEDGES: "All we're looking at now is just the General Fund, that's just income and sales tax dollars, adjusted for inflation and population. It's actually fallen per capita 1.2% over the last ten years." Carol Hedges runs the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, which is working on an initiative to create a graduated income tax and raise billions of new dollars for the state. On the other end of the ideological spectrum, the Independence Institute's Penn Pfiffer urged the audience to look not for more money, but for more cuts.
PFIFFNER: "The problem that I think we need to address is structure. We have to change the structure of how we deliver education. We have to change the structure of how we deliver government." The Independence Institute has a blueprint for cutting enough government services to make up the budget hole. For those who came to the budget forum, though, no answer seemed quite right.
But many in the audience believe a tax increase is the only option to preserve institutions they believe in. Lots of teachers came to the forum, interested in learning the larger context for the cuts their districts face -- and to get more ammunition when they try to convince people more money is needed. Kay Evans teaches at Arvada High School. EVANS: "We have to be advocates for our school system. We're the voice of our students and our kids and we have to get out there and grassroots level get something going, get people to believe in the schools."
The one thing everyone at the meeting seemed to agree on is they're not done learning, about what the state faces and what can be done. Leaving the meeting, Golden city councilman Bill Fisher said he's been having a lot of conversations like that these days. FISHER: "You know, I would say, a couple years ago, people didn't have much of an opinion about it. Now they're starting to ask the right questions I think. And they throw around all sorts of ideas, but it indicates they think it's not a sustainable direction that we currently have."
Where all these questions will lead is anyone's guess. And while the final decision on the budget comes down to 100 lawmakers and the governor, they're all likely to hear plenty from the public along the way.
DISCLAIMER: All links on this site are provided for your convenience only. The League of Women Voters of Jefferson County exercises no control of the information or opinions contained on them. Provision of these links does not indicate an endorsement of their contents by the LWV Jeffco.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: February 16, 2012 12:19 PST.