Colorado health insurance bill faces massive opposition

The 2021 Colorado General Assembly is in its final weeks, with an adjournment mandated by law no later than June 12. It is likely, however, that lawmakers will head home sooner than that, possibly as early as Monday, June 7.

The past week has been a busy one with 276 measures remaining on the Legislature’s calendar.

One bill that is nearing completion is the bill formerly known as the public option. House Bill 1232 as introduced would have set up a state-run health insurance plan to go into effect if health insurers, doctors and hospitals failed to achieve a goal of reducing insurance premiums by 20% over a two-year period.

Should the premium reduction targets not be met, the state commissioner of insurance would create a health insurance plan for the individual and small group market; that’s companies with fewer than 100 employees.

But the bill faced massive opposition from the health care providers, hospitals and health insurance companies, including a million-dollar ad campaign against it. By the time the bill left the state Senate this past week, the state-run option was gone; in its place were only the state-created insurance plan and premium reduction targets of 15% over three years.

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