[Dec 05, 2007]

      Colorado Republican state lawmakers on Monday unveiled a series of bills that would take incremental steps toward increasing the affordability of health care without raising taxes, the Denver Rocky Mountain News reports. The measures would:

• Create a low-cost benefit plan with basic health care coverage that would have a low monthly premium;
  
  
• Allow individuals to purchase health insurance from other states;
  
  
• Allow qualified nurse practitioners in rural areas to have greater authority in addressing basic patient health needs;
  
  
• Allow Medicaid beneficiaries to voluntarily reduce their benefits in exchange for greater control over their accounts;
  
  
• Urge Congress to pass legislation that would allow individual health coverage to receive the same tax incentives as corporate plans (Barge, Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/4); and
  
  
• Provide $8.6 million to reduce the waiting list of about 4,000 residents for state-funded developmental disabilities services.
  

State Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany (R) said, "The message we're trying to send here is that even though we recognize there are some serious problems with our health care system, we don't need to wreck the whole system that we have."

Response
The bills unveiled by Republicans "fell far short of the comprehensive changes that have been proposed by" the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform and were "immediately criticized by top Democrats," according to the Colorado Springs Gazette (Sealover, Colorado Springs Gazette, 12/4).

The commission reviewed five health care proposals and made recommendations for health system change that are similar to Massachusetts' health insurance law (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 11/21).

State House Speaker Andrew Romanoff (D) said that Republicans should withhold their criticism of potential tax increases until the commission shares its recommendations with the state Legislature. Romanoff said, "It seems to me way too early to declare that process a failure."

Commission Chair Bill Lindsey (R) said that he does not "see much disagreement" between the commission's recommendations and the Republican proposals, noting that many of the proposals are part of their recommendations, albeit the minor ones. "These proposals they are talking about are very incremental and they are not going to move the ball very far," Lindsey said (Denver Rocky Mountain News, 12/4).