Heading into the final days of the legislative session, statehouse Democrats are working to deliver on promises to control the cost of prescription drugs and expand health-insurance coverage to more Coloradans.
Specifically, lawmakers are doing final work this week on bills that would:
Help small businesses pay for employee health care.
Lower prescription drug costs for both Medicaid patients and middle-income residents without drug coverage.
Monitor which of the state’s larger businesses are not providing employees with medical insurance.
Democrats, who made out-of-control health care costs a cornerstone of last fall’s campaign to win the statehouse, contend they are being fiscally responsible by trimming one of the fastest-growing state expenditures.
“The voters put Democrats into office to see a difference,” said Steve Adams, president of the Colorado AFL-CIO.
“They were tired of the Republicans bashing gays, toting guns and worrying about the Pledge of Allegiance and not addressing any of the issues that are important to our day-to-day lives,” he said.
Republicans, however, say the package of bills is one more example of runaway spending of money the state does not have. And they are challenging Democrats at almost every step.
For example, the Senate on Tuesday approved, on a party-line vote, the creation of the backup insurance program for small business. It calls for using no more than $15 million annually to help businesses with 10 or fewer employees pay health care costs.
The insurance program would cover 90 percent of the cost of workers’ health-care claims between $5,000 and $75,000. Democrats estimate the program will reduce premiums for small business by 25 percent to 40 percent.
“This bill is one of a long, long list of bills we’ve seen this year that are well-intentioned but economically short-sighted,” said Senate Minority Leader Mark Hillman, R-Burlington.
“It is reckless spending that, in this case, is driven by polling data,” he said. “At worst, it makes promises we cannot keep with money we do not have, and it increases dependency on government.”
Also in the Senate on Tuesday, 18 Democrats and one Republican allied to pass Senate Bill 102, which directs state officials to take steps to join a multistate drug-purchasing pool. Fifteen Republicans voted against it. The bill now heads to the House.
Under that bill, Colorado would join other states in negotiating better drug prices for Medicaid patients.
Democrats also are pushing to create the Colorado Cares RX program, which would let middle-income residents without prescription coverage buy drugs at the lower state-negotiated rates. About 281,000 residents with incomes below $56,550 would qualify.
The state spent $256 million last year on drugs for Medicaid patients. The bulk-buying program would help the state save $1 million in 2006-07 and $1.3 million in 2007-08.
In another step to monitor Medicaid costs, the Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would track the employers of people using health services paid for with tax dollars.
Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, sponsor of the bill creating the Healthy Business Healthy People reinsurance program for small businesses, acknowledged the challenge of trying to heal a broken health care system piece by piece.
“Health care is like Jell-O,” she said, gesturing as if she were holding an imaginary blob of gelatin. “You squeeze it, you think you’ve got it, and then it squeezes out. It’s over there, you know?”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at mcouch@denverpost.com or 303-820- 1794.
