Rep. John Kefalas has done a stellar job of shepherding the Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB 1273) through two committees - Business Affairs & Labor and Appropriations - and a second reading in the House. The bill is scheduled for 3rd reading and final vote in the House on Monday, April 13, where it now has 32 votes. One more vote is needed or it will die.

Six Democrats have yet to indicate they will vote affirmatively.

Please call and email each of the following representatives before 9 a.m. on Monday morning.

Speaker Terrence Carroll 303-866-2909 terrance.carroll.house@state.co.us

Rep. Kathleen Curry 303-866-2945 kathleencurry@montrose.net

Rep. Wesley McKinley 303-866-2398 mckinley@cowboywes.com

Rep. Karen Middleton 303-866-3911 karen@karenmiddleton.com

Rep. Jim Riesberg 303-866-2929 jim.riesberg.house@state.co.us

Rep. Christine Scanlan 303-866-2952 christine.scanlan.house@state.co.us


The Board of Directors of the Health District of Northern Larimer County wrote a 6-page objective analysis of HB 1273, and voted unaminously to endorse the bill - one of more than 60 group endorsers. Read their Analysis.

The Northern Colorado Business Report, which has remained out in front in reporting on health care reform, on March 13 printed an editorial endorsement of HB 1273. Read their Endorsement.

Opponents of HB 1273 have predictably focused on "free market" arguments invoking "competition" and "choice", though, honestly, people want a choice of health care providers, not minimum-benefit insurances that leave them at risk. Rep. Kefalas has consistently maintained that to move to a quality-centered health care system, competition should occur among providers, not among for-profit insurances. Kefalas rightly notes that we need a new health care paradigm that also permits greater transparency in order to facilitate determination of best practices and health care outcomes. Currently, thousands of different insurers each maintain secrecy around their own proprietary data.

One of the oft-used arguments to foreclose debate of HB 1273 - used by Republicans and by the governor’s office - has been the notion that the 208 Commission studied the single payer proposal in depth and rejected it. Nevertheless, we who were present at most of the 208 Commission meetings witnessed the almost immediate dismissal of any consideration of the Single Payer model. There was true disbelief expressed by Commission Chair Bill Lindsay (among others) - "That can’t be!" - when the Lewin Group reported the cost savings of single payer. It was the only one of 5 proposals that showed cost savings for providers, businesses, families, hospitals, and a net savings for the state of $1.4 billion, as well as the ability to provide comprehensive coverage for all.

There was never any attempt by the Commission to follow up with study of  the Single Payer model - rather, they dismissed it in 4 cursory sentences in their Final Report to the legislature, calling it "politically unfeasible." The Commission devoted most of their time to writing their own proposal of incremental reforms based on the Massachusetts model of a mandate for private insurances.

So, debate around the Single Payer model has been consistently short-circuited at all levels, with an effective media blackout among the large Denver-area print media. It bears repeating that throughout the 208 Commission process, the Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News rejected pieces related to the Single Payer model, preferring instead pieces by "free-market" advocates. The business editor of the News informed me that he did not want "to confuse his readers" with information about single payer. By comparision, the Ft. Collins and Pueblo newspapers excelled at presenting pros and cons of all aspects of the health care reform debate.

We have yet to have a thorough honest debate of the Single Payer model of health care that has not been distorted by opponents’ framing, too often with capitulation from some of our Democratic leaders. As recently as April 7 when Rep. Diana DeGette gave her signature health care reform speech before the City Club of Denver, she conceded the issue by using opponents’ framing of health care reform. Promising "strong doctor-patient relationships - free from government interference...," DeGette disregarded the fact that only a single-payer model offers full choice of providers; nor did she mention the $20 billion annual interference of private insurance plans that daily breach patient-doctor relationships, gaming the system using "Denial Management" to deny, delay and renege on insurance claims. "...let there be no doubt: ‘socialized medicine’ is not coming to America," promised DeGette. Again, our Democratic leaders too often fail to define issues and inform people, but rather fall into the trap of letting Republicans and corporate interests define the terms of every debate.

For the first time since Rep. Kefalas introduced the Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB 1273) this legislative session, on Monday April 6 there was a relatively brief (1-1/2 hour) window for debate about the issue of single payer on the House floor. It was a powerful experience to witness  Democrats stepping up to present the case for a sytemic health care reform, countering the specious arguments presented by the opposition. I will summarize the April 6 HB 1273 House floor debate in a subsequent post.

The East Denver Neighborhood Volunteers for Change is excited to bring together three experienced and knowledgeable speakers to discuss Residential Alternative Energy. If you've ever considered the possibility of adding solar panels to your home or helping others in your community to do so, then you'll want to attend this event.

• Date: Saturday, May 2nd, 2009


• Time: 3pm


• Location: Greater Park Hill Community Office (2823 Fairfax St., Denver, CO 80207 map)

• Dr. Kenneth Lichtenstein, MD will be discussing the decisions, concerns, and results of the installation of the 5kw system at his home in Park Hill by Namaste (the company that President Obama highlighted during his visit here for the Stimulus bill signing).


• State Sen. Morgan Carroll will be discussing the bill she introduced -- SB09-51, which (among other things) provides financing of alternative energy installations for low-income households


• Mr. Jonah Fruchter from the Sierra Club will be discussing alternative energy, available rebates, and the need for grassroots involvement.

A May 2005 Pew Poll revealed that 65 percent agreed government should guarantee health coverage for every American "even if it means raising taxes." In a 2009 Lake Research Partners survey, nearly 7 in 10 voters expressed a desire for complete overhaul or major reform of the health care system. The April 2008 Annals of Internal Medicine reported that 59 percent of U.S. doctors supported "government legislation to establish national health insurance," an increase of 10 percent of doctors over 5 years.

The debate continues to be short-circuited, an effective blackout in some media markets since the convening of the Colorado 208 Commission on Health Care Reform. Though the CHS single-payer proposal was the only 1 of 5 proposals demonstrating state cost savings of $1.4 billion and comprehensive coverage for all, it was buried in the Commission’s final report and dismissed as ‘politically unfeasible.’

Throughout the 208 Commission process, the Denver Post and The Rocky Mountain News printed only health care reform pieces by ‘free-market’ advocates. The News business editor, Rob Reuteman backed out of his promise to give equal time to single-payer, saying that it is "pie-in-the-sky" and "I don’t want to confuse the readers." Media marginalization continues.

The Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB 1273) moved out of the Business Affairs Committee on March 18, with at least 100 supporters, many providers and small business owners testifying about the need to address the declining primary care infrastructure and the rising cost that make coverage prohibitive. It was noted that Massachusetts reform is a trainwreck, marked by taxpayer-subsidized private insurance and growing numbers on Medicaid rolls, doubliing Massachusetts health spending, from $630 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.3 billion in 2009.

HCPF director and the governor’s spokesperson, Joan Henneberry spoke against HB 1273, calling it a "a new bureaucracy." In fact, the bill intends to address the unsustainable private and public health care bureaucracies. Multi-payer insurances are paper-intensive with high overhead costs; and the Colorado Medicaid bureaucracy maintains about 20 different categories of Medicaid, each with different means testing and annual reauthorizations that erect barriers to health care access and exponentially increase administrative costs.

On March 27 Colorado State of Mind (ch 6) invited panelists to speak about Colorado health care reform, but failed to include anyone who could speak to the specious arguments raised against HB 1273. Pediatrician Larry Wolk asserted that single payer denies ‘choice,’ and that it represents ‘one-size-fits-all’ -- variations on the ‘free-market’ theme holding that people want a choice of insurances, rather than a choice of health care providers. A choice of minimum-benefit and catastrophic coverage is no choice at all - something employees are discovering as costs rise and more are moved into reduced-benefit policies with high out-of-pocket costs.

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Reginald Washington noted that even if more people have public or private insurance, there are not enough primary care providers in Colorado to care for everybody. In fact, more primary care providers are leaving private practice, overwhelmed by the burden of dealing with multi-payer networks, copious paperwork, preauthorizations and claims denials that take away valuable time from patients, and require them to hire extra staff.

The Colorado Guaranteed Health Care Act (HB1273) provides the structure for a long-term, systemic solution – simplified billing, quality-centered health care, and full choice of providers and hospitals. It addresses our degraded primary care system with investment in education to address provider shortages; and requires transparency for determining best practices, and incentives for improved health outcomes and costs containment.

The bill passed out of Appropriatiions April 3 and will probably be heard in the full House the week of April 6. All of our legislators and the governor need to hear that there is grassroots support for HB1273. Appropriations members are below. Identify your legislators at www.vote-smart.org . Write an email to the governor at http://www.chcpf.state.co.us/governor/contact.html.

To those who ask why we do this at the state level, there have been federal bills (which may be re-introduced this session) to fund state pilot projects for health care reform. At least one of our congressional delegation is willing to help us at the federal level, and we need to be ready. If you think comprehensive health care reform will happen quickly at the federal level, please read the following piece I wrote for Huffington Post:  Dems & Repubs on Health Care: 'Love a Lobbyist' - we need to urge our federal senators and representatives to work for meaningful reform.

There are national Petitions in process to ask Obama to appoint a Special Prosecutor to lead US Department Of Justice enforcement actions against the Bush appointee Lawyers that advocated felony violations of our Federal Laws on Torture, and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Who have addmitted Ordering felony

This website is a quick way to sign the Petition to have them Indicted and to ask Obama to appoint a Special Prosecutor Thanks for your assistance.