Insurance for state kids is expanded

AURORA - Expanding public insurance programs to cover more children and cutting red tape in registering for those programs is only the beginning of health care reform in Colorado, Gov. Bill Ritter emphasized Tuesday.

Ritter signed 11 health care bills that represent his 2008 health care agenda at a packed ceremony at The Children's Hospital. Supporters lauded the fact that the measures open up the government-run Children's Basic Health Plan to another 50,000 kids, require creation of a statewide public health improvement plan and begin a process to create new lowcost private insurance plans.

But each came with this caveat: The new laws do not adequately address the state's health care problems as much as they set the groundwork for greater change. Both legislators and activists agreed that officials must find a way to get coverage to about 600,000 uninsured adults and to increase access to health care in rural Colorado.

"They don't get us to the place where we cover every Coloradan," Ritter said. "But we define this as a building-blocks approach, and it gets us a lot closer to that goal."

Ritter, a Democrat, declined after the event to specify what steps he wants to take next year. But Joan Hennebery, executive director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, noted that she already has begun taking ideas from medical groups and advocacy organizations, looking at budget implications and preparing an agenda that is expected be ready within a few months.

A blue-ribbon commission made recommendations on sweeping health care changes to the General Assembly in January, suggesting policies to cover most of the state's uninsured. But it also recommended phasing in the changes rather than trying to make them all at once.

Because of that, health care advocates among the 200-person crowd at Tuesday's signings said they are largely happy with the improvements, which include:

• Creation of a standardized health-plan ID card that shows a doctor immediately what services are covered.

• A requirement that most health care plans cover colorectal cancer screening tests and children's hearing aids.

• Creation of a fund to allow new mothers to donate life-saving umbilicalcord stem cells to public blood banks - a first-of-itskind idea that backers will pitch next to Colorado's congressional delegation.

"We have made tremendous progress in the four months since the commission presented its work," said Dr. Mark Wallace, vice chairman of the blue-ribbon commission and founder of the Northern Colorado Health Alliance.

Several noted, however, that the new laws increase public coverage only for children, not adults, and offer no incentives for doctors to locate in rural areas, where health care sometimes can be hours away. One of the bills requires the state to take bids from private insurers on creating a new system of low-cost, low-benefit plans for the uninsured, but it does nothing to require that the idea eventually become law.

"Given that there are close to 800,000 Coloradans who are uninsured, the bills that were done take some pretty significant steps, but it's not going to reach all of them," said Maureen Maxwell, communications manager for Colorado Community Health Network. "So there's more work to be done."

CONTACT THE WRITER: (303) 837-0613 or ed.sealover@gazette.com

OTHER NEW LAWS

In between public bill signings, Gov. Bill Ritter quietly inked 38 bills Monday, including a number that affect the Pikes Peak area. Among those signed into law were:

• HB1007 by Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, which removes any mention of the proposed Super Slab toll road from the titles of property owners within its corridor.

• HB1180 by Looper and Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Colorado Springs, which allows military spouses who leave jobs in Colorado in order to be with spouses who are transferred out of state to collect state unemployment insurance benefits.

• HB1345, inspired by the delayed swearing-in of Colorado Springs GOP Rep. Douglas Bruce, which requires that anyone appointed to a vacant legislative seat must take their oath of office within 30 days of their appointment.

• HB1356 by Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, which gives rental tenants more rights in dealing with unresponsive or absentee landlords.

• SB219, which was requested by El Paso County officials, which requires licensing of massage therapists and allows the state to investigate and punish people who are committing sex acts under the guise of being workers at massage parlors.

ED SEALOVER, THE GAZETTE