Double-digit bump on the way, says employers survey

By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, November 30, 2007

Coloradans’ health care costs will soar an average of 12.9 percent in 2008, outpacing the national average, forcing companies to shift costs to employees.

It’s the seventh consecutive year of double-digit increases in the state, according to a survey of Colorado employers conducted annually by Lockton Benefit Group.

The survey compares itself with national studies showing costs rising from 7 percent to 9 percent next year. The rate increases come even as Colorado often ranks among the healthiest states in terms of physical fitness and lower obesity rates.

"That’s one of the key questions - if you have a healthier population, why doesn’t that translate into lower health care costs?" said Bill Lindsay, president of Denver-based Lockton Benefit Group.

Colorado’s above-average increases make the state less attractive to employers, and the shift of costs to employers "place Colorado workers at a greater disadvantage in terms of higher deductibles, out-of-pocket expense and more significant premium cost- sharing than their counterparts nationally," he said. [Read the rest of this story]

Loss of services feared if Catholic charity takes over

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Friday, November 30, 2007

Powerful civil liberties groups have joined forces to oppose the proposed sale of two metro hospitals to a Catholic health care organization.

Many doctors at the hospitals - Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette - also oppose the sale. The civil liberties coalition is considering legal action to stop the sale.

If the $611 million transaction goes through, medical staff at both hospitals must follow Catholic ethical and religious directives. That means doctors could not perform vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions in the hospitals. They also could not give birth control counseling or remove feeding tubes for those in a persistent vegetative state.

"We’re just concerned about the loss of services that are going to result particularly to people in Jefferson County," said Roland Halpern, director of community relations for the local office of Compassion & Choices, an organization that supports choice in end-of-life decisions. [Read the rest of this story]