bob semro

By Bob Semro
Published in Get Healthy SLV.org, a project of the San Luis Valley Medical Center

Get Colorado Covered

The Colorado Health Benefit Exchange won't be up and running until October 2013, but Colorado residents can start learning about it right now. The exchange has a new website – www.getcoveredco.org.

By Will Hearst
Montrose Daily Press

Dozens of citizens and area health care professionals found their way to a Montrose Memorial Hospital conference room Friday to learn more about the Affordable Care Act in a presentation hosted by the Montrose County League of Women Voters.

Presenter Robert Semro, a policy analyst for the Bell Policy Center, said the new policy is now the law of the land, but patients, as well as health care providers, insurance companies and employers, can expect more changes.

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.

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.

We want to talk to you!

The expert staff of the Bell Policy Center has developed deep knowledge about many of the most challenging issues facing Colorado, but that knowledge has little value unless we share it.

With that in mind, we want to make Bell staffers available for presentations on a variety of important topics. If your group is interested in learning more and has an opening on its summer or fall agenda, please let us know.

By Scot Kersgaard
The Colorado Independent

A report issued Tuesday by healthcare advocacy group Families USA illustrates how the Ryan budget, passed recently in the U.S. House on a mostly partisan vote, could cost Colorado up to $36 billion over the next decade.

According to the report, Colorado would bleed billions in Medicaid, Medicare and other federal healthcare spending over the next ten years if the budget were adopted.

By Gena Akers
Valley Voices (San Luis Valley Health.org)

The math is simple. Our country has a budget deficit because we spend more than we have. The same applies personally: you can't spend your problems away with credit cards. You have to be accountable to yourself.

Now, we need to be accountable to our nation so our nation doesn't fail us.

Looking for the Quick Fix

Kaiser Permanente Insurance Help

(Web page on BallotPedia.org; Bob Semro's work also cited on Health Care Compact page)

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK: Governor Mary Fallin signed Senate Bill 722 into law yesterday, making Oklahoma the second state to join an interstate compact that allows states to assert more control over their health care systems.(1) Georgia Governor Nathan Deal approved a similar version of the health care compact on April 20.