The fate of the key health-care bill of the 2006 legislative session, a plan to lower prescription costs for some 800,000 uninsured and older Coloradans, is still up in the air, but lawmakers made progress overall on health legislation.
Senate Bill 1 would require the state to enter a multi-state drug purchasing pool in an effort to reduce prescription costs for Medicaid recipients. Gov. Bill Owens vetoed a similar measure last year.
But it wasn’t the only beneficial health legislation approved by lawmakers. One critical measure, Senate Bill 44, funnels $15 million into community health clinics that serve low-income adults. It is critical that the neighborhood health clinics have the resources to provide care for people who otherwise can’t afford it, and who might be forced to use high-cost emergency rooms otherwise.
But, perhaps the most important health-care steps were taken in the less-noticed details of the state budget. The Joint Budget Committee restored millions of dollars to critical health programs, thanks to revenue made available by voter approval of Referendum C last November.
The committee did an admirable job of prioritizing critical health needs.
For the final quarter of the current budget year (April to June), more than $65 million in supplemental funds were allocated to 18 programs that help clients from sick babies to senior citizens. Money was restored to community treatment programs that serve mentally ill people removed from Fort Logan when it closed, and to childhood specialists who serve mentally ill children. Increased funds went to vocational rehabilitation programs for elimination of waiting lists. Money was earmarked for developmentally disabled people, community drug treatment and the state’s indigent care program. Some money was restored to increase reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals, whose Medicaid rates had been cut in recent years. Increases were also carried into the full 2006-07 budget.
A top promise of Referendum C backers was that health programs would be helped, and lawmakers kept that promise.
