Colorado Gov. Ritter signs 11 health care bills to increase access, expand coverage

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) on Tuesday signed into law 11 health care bills, including measures to expand coverage requirements and increase children's access to care, the AP/Denver Post reports.

One of the measures (SB 160) Ritter signed will expand eligibility for Child Health Plan Plus, the state's version of SCHIP, to include children in families with incomes up to 225% of the federal poverty level. The bill also will expand mental health benefits for children enrolled in the program. A companion bill (SB 161) also signed into law will remove administrative barriers to applying for Medicaid and Child's Health Plan Plus (AP/Denver Post, 6/3). According to the Denver Rocky Mountain News, the legislation will qualify an additional 50,000 uninsured children for the programs (Torkelson, Denver Rocky Mountain News, 6/3).

The other health care bills signed into law were:

• SB 57, which will require insurers to cover children's hearing aids;
• SB 135, which will create standardized health plan identification cards to make it easier for providers to get information from insurers;
• SB 138, which will establish minimum requirements for designations or rating systems for physicians developed by health care or insurance entities;
• SB 194, which will direct the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to develop a public health improvement plan for the state;
• SB 217, which will direct two state agencies to develop a "Centennial Care Choices" plan that could provide many state residents with basic health coverage;
• HB 1100, which will restore funds to the Colorado Responds to Children with Special Needs Program;
• HB 1385, which will establish a consumer guide to purchasing health insurance on the state Division of Insurance Web site and increase transparency of insurance brokers' commission fees; and
• HB 1410, which will require most insurance plans to cover colorectal cancer screening tests (AP/Denver Post, 6/3).

Ritter said the new laws "don't get us to the place where we cover every Coloradan," adding, "But we define this as a building-blocks approach, and it gets us a lot closer to that goal." Joan Hennebery, executive director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, said she has already begun taking ideas from medical groups and advocacy organizations for issues to be addressed next year, and has begun looking at budget implications and preparing an agenda (Sealover, Colorado Springs Gazette, 6/3).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.