Health

By Kevin Simpson
The Denver Post

Colorado plans to expand Medicaid coverage next year to cover more than 160,000 additional low-income adults, aided by cost-control savings of more than $280 million over the next 10 years, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Thursday.

"This is a step toward what we have talked about for a couple of years: How can we make sure we're making Colorado the single healthiest state in America?" Hickenlooper said.

Today, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced plans to proceed with expansion of Medicaid in Colorado as part of the Affordable Care Act. Beginning in 2014, Coloradans will be eligible for enrollment in Medicaid if their annual incomes are less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level – $30,657 per year for a family of four or $14,856 per year for an individual.

By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post

Twenty years after Coloradans approved the most restrictive tax and expenditure limitation in the country, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights has reshaped state government and sparked debate on similar proposals across the country and now is under greater assault than ever before.

By Beth Potter
Boulder County Business Report

The clock is ticking for the Affordable Care Act to go into effect in 2014. The federal health-care reform legislation will require all uninsured Americans to buy insurance or face penalties as well as a host of other things. The new rules were passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2010.

There's been a lot of discussion in popular culture about health-care reform, and whether it causes existing health-insurance costs to go up or down.

By Amy Gillentine
Colorado Springs Business Journal

The fiscal cliff is looming larger, and the country actually might endure a series of draconian cuts and tax increases – something that was never supposed to happen.

When Congress passed a law in August 2011 requiring $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts – half from the Department of Defense – it was supposed to serve as a wake-up call for compromise to get the national debt under control.

Expanding opportunity in Colorado

The Bell believes Colorado should be a state of opportunity – a place where people can build better lives and recapture the American dream. That belief guides our research and analysis and helps us develop recommendations for public policy. Here is a partial list of recent reports and other work aimed at informing and engaging Coloradans – and increasing opportunity. All of our publications are available at www.bellpolicy.org. Specific links are provided below.

VALLEY – On November 14, The Bell Policy Center aired ‘Colorado: Boom or Bust', a TV special showing the past, present and future of Colorado. The television special, produced with Colorado Public Television and ProgressNow Colorado, provides history about the state and some of the fiscal challenges that Coloradans face with the goal being to start a conversation about the state's future.

Colorado: Boom or Bust, our television special, is now available on our website – the whole show and its various segments, along with supplementary informational graphics.

The show explores our state's financial condition in everyday language, in the same way a family would talk about its budget around the dining room table. That's the goal of the show – to get a family-style conversation going about Colorado and the investments we make in our state.

By Mike Booth
The Denver Post

The state's share of costs for expanding Medicaid rolls under federal health-care reform could be $858 million over 10 years, according to new estimates from the Kaiser Family Foundation.