A task force on healthcare in Colorado is expected to present its recommendations for reforming healthcare in the state today.
The state's 27-member Blue Ribbon Task Force on Health Care Reform is expected to present its findings to the state's general assembly. All but three members supported the panel's final recommendations; the three submitted two minority reports suggesting alternative approaches.
The reform measures to be recommended by the panel could cost in excess of $1 billion, according to published reports.
A key feature of the plan would require legal residents of the state to have a minimum level of insurance coverage, which would be enabled by expanding eligibility for public programs, providing sliding-scale subsidies for low-income workers who want to purchase private insurance, reforming the individual insurance market and enforcing the mandate through the tax system.
The Colorado plan borrows from the Massachusetts program in that it would create a "connector" to help individuals and small employers understand and choose insurance options.
For providers, the plan would seek to improve access to cost and quality information; improve delivery of services to vulnerable and underserved populations through program expansions, reimbursement for telemedicine and other mechanisms; and fund safety net providers and public health delivery systems "appropriately."
The Colorado proposals also include provisions to provide a medical home for all state residents, support the adoption of health information technology, support the provision of evidence-based medicine and pay providers based on quality.
The initiative would make it the latest in a series of state initiatives suggested for implementing healthcare reform.
A study published Tuesday in Health Affairs, an industry journal, found "a new wave of state legislative activities to expand coverage to uninsured people."
In all, 39 states have enacted laws in at least one access category since 2006, when Massachusetts and Vermont passed ambitious healthcare reform measures. In addition, at least 13 states have begun work on comprehensive reforms to cover at least half of their uninsured residents.
The state reform efforts can provide clues as to what other states and the federal government may try, the article noted. State efforts could carry additional impact because of the high visibility of healthcare reform in the platforms of presidential candidates in 2008.
The study was conducted by John McDonough, Michael Miller and Christine Barber, McDonough is executive director of Health Care for All, while Miller and Barber are on staff at Community Catalyst. Both organizations specialize in health advocacy.