FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
3.19.07

CONTACT: 
Ben Davis
303.522.6790

DENVER, CO:  A new measure to alleviate Colorado’s health care crisis emerged today as lawmakers announced a plan to small businesses from expensive insurance plans at the state capitol.

The measure, sponsored by Representatives Anne McGihon and Tom Massey, will prohibit health insurance companies from rating up their customers as a result of their health status or claims history.  Under current law, health insurers are able to increase the cost of their premiums for customers with current or past health problems. 

Supporters of the measure were in attendance representing small business owners and health care consumers desperate for a solution to the expensive challenges they face when trying to provide coverage for their employees. 

“High health insurance rates are a problem throughout Colorado because we are allowing insurance companies to increase their rates based on our health and our claims history.” said Representative McGihon.  “We deserve better, Colorado businesses deserve better, and this legislation will get us there.”

 In Colorado, the business community is comprised mostly of small operations with 50 or fewer employees.    Overwhelmingly, small business owners are increasingly unable to offer their employees health insurance coverage.  They are faced with rising costs, difficult decisions to either “thin” down insurance coverage or discontinue health insurance coverage altogether. 

 These small businesses have seen their share of health insurance premiums rise 5.5 times more quickly than real earnings – forcing families to reject employer sponsored insurance because it is simply unaffordable.

 “Colorado employer-sponsored health insurance is declining at a greater rate than the national average, and evidence suggests there is a direct correlation between the rising costs of health insurance premiums and a growing number of uninsured Coloradoans,” said Nathan Wilkes.  Mr. Wilkes cares for a chronically ill son for whom providing care is a challenge despite a six-figure income as a computer network security expert.a consumer and spokesperson.  ”Consider the facts: Colorado is among the highest insurance premium states in the country – even California has lower insurance premium rates.”

For small businesses and consumers, health insurance premiums become unaffordable when small groups are rated up by insurance carriers. Insurance carriers are able to apply higher rates to the small business groups because of rate bands that were authorized in 2003 by House Bill 1164, the most discriminatory of the bands were health status and insurance claims experience. 

Since 2003, insurance carriers have been able to discriminate against small groups by rating up groups whose members have health conditions as minor as allergies or who have accessed the health care system numerous times in the past few years. 

“If your son needs ear tubes your small firm can be rated up,” said Kent Peppler, President of Rocky Mountain Farmer’s Union. “If you accessed your health care insurance a few times because of a lower back condition or bad knee, your small firm will get rated up.  This is the type of reform voters in Colorado have hired us to accomplish.”  

 “There are tough decisions to be made and we all share responsibility for making society work and restoring peace of mind to all Coloradans,” AW Schnellbacher AARP Colorado Legislative Coordinator.  “It is time for real leadership and real solutions on the issues that matter to Colorado and the American people.” 

 Rate bands such as health status and claims experience, not only discriminate against consumers and small businesses they also create high administrative costs for insurance carriers and create a less transparent insurance rating structure.

 “We know that 63% of our state’s uninsured adults worked in businesses with fewer than 100 employees,” said Dede de Percin, Executive Director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative.  “This measure is a strong first step towards a more inclusive, affordable health care system.”  

This measure is supported by the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, AARP, and the Rocky Mountain Farmer’s Union.  

The Colorado Consumer Health initiative is dedicated to empowering consumers to know more about their health care system, and break down the barriers that deny Coloradoans access to quality health care.  In line with this mission is the necessity to repeal harmful and discriminatory rate bands that hurt small businesses and consumers. It’s time Colorado make health insurance affordable to consumers and small businesses for the welfare of the state as a whole.