The Bell Policy Center placed its support Monday behind a bill that would prohibit insurers from considering employees’ health and claims records when setting premiums for small businesses.

The Denver-based policy center said House Bill 1355 would help protect small businesses and workers from premium price fluctuations and called it a "critical building block" in moving the state toward comprehensive health care reform.

"We believe that it will create more opportunity in the state of Colorado for small businesses and their workers," said Bell senior policy analyst Robin Baker. "We hope it builds toward a point where everyone in the state has access to health care."

The insurance-rate regulation bill applies only to businesses with 50 or fewer workers.

The bill is awaiting a decision by Gov. Bill Ritter, after passing through the House and Senate. Ritter has until June 4 to sign or veto the bill, along with the roughly 200 other bills that remain on his desk. (more…)

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News
May 17, 200

You may think twice the next time you drink tap water in Denver.

For several years, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department has failed to test hundreds of devices that prevent pesticides and other dangerous substances from slipping into the treated water system and into residents’ pipes.

Last month, Denver Water threatened to shut off the city’s water service and get the state involved if the parks department didn’t get its act together.

"Noncompliance must be dealt with not only as an ethical responsibility to the public, but in order for Denver Water to be in compliance with state regulations," wrote Robert Stevens, a Denver Water supervisor. "This means that Denver Water must ultimately deal with noncompliance by discontinuing water service."

The devices are designed to permit water to flow one way. They contain two valves that snap shut if negative water pressure threatens to reverse the flow. They primarily are used in sprinkler systems. (more…)

BY JOHN SCHROYER
THE COLORADO STATESMAN

At the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s fifth annual health care policy breakfast Friday morning, economist Len Nichols received a rousing ovation even after informing a room full of business leaders that they should not be afraid of government mandates.

“I submit to you that a mandate can be your friend,” Nichols argued in his hour-long presentation. Nichols, the director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation and a former Clinton appointee, told his audience that what is needed is heightened cooperation between private companies, health insurance providers, the government, and consumers.

“I tell you, it’s not a question of charity. It’s a question of stewardship. We’re spending money stupidly,” Nichols said, and added that it would cost less to provide basic health insurance than it currently does to provide care for unintended illnesses and related costs.

He argued there was a balance to be struck between the free market and government regulation, and that message — perhaps surprisingly — resonated within the crowd that morning. (more…)