Paying for Health Care

Medicaid's new assessment for disabled children could hinder instead of help

Health-care fraud is big business. What are the feds doing about it?

Mara Wiles on her return to comedy following a kidney transplant

Comedian Mara Wiles hasn't had it easy the last few years. After establishing herself as an intelligently goofy performer on the local comedy scene, she was diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening kidney disorder that, to say the least, interrupted her ascending career as a standup. And Denver ... More >>

Alternative therapies: Florida program similar to Colorado pilot saved money, improved health

Colorado has a new Medicaid pilot program that will cover the cost of acupuncture, massage therapy and chiropractic services for 67 people with spinal cord injuries. As explained in our feature story, "Body Movin'," the program's chief architect is a determined thirty-year-old named Chanda Hinton Le ... More >>

Alternative therapy could be the next step for those with spinal cord injuries

Photos: Chanda Hinton Leichtle is out to change how Medicaid treats spinal cord injuries

Gazette's Wayne Laugesen on why he thinks Planned Parenthood covers up statutory rape

Update: This weekend, Colorado Springs Gazette editorial page editor Wayne Laugesen published a scathing piece in which he argued that Planned Parenthood was likely worse than Penn State when it came to covering up sexual assaults on children; our previous coverage is below. Laugesen explains the ti ... More >>

Paul Ryan private Denver fundraiser, Lakewood rally more proof of swing state status

Further underscoring the importance of Colorado as a key swing state in the presidential election, Paul Ryan, the newly named Republican vice presidential candidate, is holding events in metro Denver tonight and tomorrow -- just two days after Mitt Romney announced his running mate. Ryan began his ... More >>

Diana DeGette's push for temporary-firefighter insurance gains a big ally: The President

Wildfire season -- which has included several massive Colorado blazes already this year -- puts thousands of seasonal firefighters to work. But because many have temporary status, they aren't eligible for federal health insurance -- a concern Representative Diana DeGette hoped to address in a new bi ... More >>

Supreme Court health care ruling: Advocates praise it, tout Colorado reforms

Big news today for Barack Obama and, you know, tens of millions of Americans across the country: The Supreme Court of the United States has finally issued its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, essentially deciding to keep most of it intact. And advocates in Colorado are cheering the news, saying it ... More >>

Video: Thanks Obamacare! clip pleads "Don't Deny Us" as Supreme Court mulls ruling

Last November, we introduced you to ThanksObamacare.org, a local website aiming to transform "Obamacare" from an attack label used by opponents of the 2010 health-care law to a term of endearment. This week, the site's released a new video, "Don't Deny Us," which expands on this theme as political o ... More >>

Thanks Obamacare! website aims to turn partisan slur into positive term (VIDEO)

Obama caring.​The term "Obamacare" was originally conceived by opponents of President Barack Obama's health-care reforms as a way of hanging what they saw as a political albatross around his neck. But now, a group of Colorado activists have embraced the word with ThanksObamacare.org, a website ... More >>

Denver Children's Advocacy Center, others win federal grant to educate families about Medicaid

​ The Denver Children's Advocacy Center has won a $50,000 federal grant to educate parents and pregnant women about Medicaid and other health insurance for low-income families. The grant is the second such award for the center, which serves children who have been sexually abused, neglected or ... More >>

Circumcision: Colorado to stop Medicaid coverage of snipping newborn boys' foreskin

Flickr​ A week from today, Colorado is cutting -- pun intended -- Medicaid funding for circumcisions. According to the Associated Press, the state will join seventeen others in making the cost-saving move, which will likely please circumcision opponents, such as Paul Russo, the subject of a 19 ... More >>

Reader: Tea Party types are wrong to think Social Security is a redistribution of wealth

​Our post about this past weekend's Tax Day Tea Party in Loveland turned into a lively forum for debate about whether this grassroots movement is a good thing or a bad thing. Here's a post from someone representing the latter point of view.

John Suthers calls ruling against health-care legislation a victory for federalism: Read it here

John Suthers.​Last March, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers joined "nearly a dozen" state AGs in challenging the constitutionality of just-passed health-care legislation. Now, he is celebrating a U.S. District Court ruling in Florida that concludes Congress "exceeded the bounds of its aut ... More >>

Whose Dole Is It, Anyway?

Mike Fallon, Republican candidate in District 1, takes on Diana DeGette, seeks cure for Congress

Mike Fallon​It's the middle of the afternoon and Mike Fallon is at Pint's Pub. The Republican candidate for Colorado's 1st Congressional District wasn't driven to the bottle by the rigors of campaigning, however. Rather, he's holding the first in a series of town-hall meetings that will take ... More >>

Marijuana debate: Should indigent patients wait months before earning state benefits?

​Which medical marijuana patients deserve financial assistance -- and how long should they wait for it? This question arose during debate over House Bill 1284, part of the state's new package of medical marijuana laws. Now, the health department's new medical marijuana advisory group is tryin ... More >>

John Suthers, twelve other attorneys general, team up to kill health-care law: Read the lawsuit

"The Florida guy had to write the whole thing...."​Yesterday afternoon, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced that he would be joining "nearly a dozen" fellow AGs across the country in suing to stop the just-signed health-care law from taking effect. Since then, the number of bandw ... More >>

Betsy Markey and David Sirota at the Cherry Cricket: Kenny Be's Friday Afternoon Club

Kenny Be​ "You think my support of the Health Care Reform Bill will jeopardize my re-election? Well, just what do you know about anything? I can tell you this, what you don't know, Mr. Sirota, could fill a book. Make that two books, a blog and a three-hour daily radio show."

Michael Bennet and health care: Live by the public option, or die by it

"Hey, Barack. Remember that public-option thing you used to be so hot on?"​Colorado's Michael Bennet is widely seen as being among the most vulnerable Democratic senators in advance of the November 2010 election -- hence President Barack Obama's fundraising visit to Denver last week before a p ... More >>

Single payer health care rally for Obama visit: The concept is better for everyone except those getting rich off current, broken system, organizer says

Dr. Margaret Flowers will speak at the rally.​President Barack Obama's visit to Denver today is prompting more spectacles than just a medical marijuana protest featuring Sensible Colorado's Brian Vicente, which is scheduled to be underway at this writing. For instance, there's also "Rally 'Ro ... More >>

The Color of Money

$1.5 million federal grant to help adults with disabilities in Colorado find jobs

An image from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing website​ The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (known affectionately as "hick-puff") didn't win any popularity contests this past summer when it unveiled changes in the way Medicaid payments would b ... More >>

John McCain Medicare-scare robocalls target Michael Bennet

At least he's not saying healthcare reform mirrors the North Vietnamese approach...​Yesterday, an amendment sponsored by Colorado Senator Michael Bennet guaranteeing no Medicare benefit takeaways because of healthcare reform passed 100-0. Among those voting for it: Arizona's John McCain, who's ... More >>

Michael Bennet bets his job on healthcare: Brave or stupid?

A single word from Senator Michael Bennet has simultaneously thrilled his supporters and emboldened critics who think he's might an incredible strategic blunder. That word is "yes." This weekend, Bennet appeared on CNN's State of the Union program, and when interrogator Jon King asked if he'd stil ... More >>

Abortion rights a hill Diana DeGette's willing to die on in healthcare debate

Will Nancy Pelosi get so mad at Diana DeGette that she actually blinks?​Just because the House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill this weekend doesn't mean it'll stay passed. Denver congresswoman Diana DeGette is leading a group of reproductive-rights supporters who are mad as hell th ... More >>

Betsy Markey rep just not that into talking about her "no" vote on healthcare bill

Betsy Markey doesn't like the House's healthcare bill -- and she's not that into talking about why not, either.​Even though Diana DeGette has big problems with an amendment to the mammoth healthcare bill limiting access to abortions, she voted for the measure. Not so Betsy Markey, the only Dem ... More >>

Archbishop Charles Chaput puts Obama administration on notice about abortion funding

Archbishop Charles Chaput supports healthcare reform -- but his mind could be changed.​Archbishop Charles Chaput supports healthcare reform -- but his mind could be changed.​Although Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput is seen as an arch-conservative in many quarters, he's actually supporte ... More >>

Jane Norton's introduction not too mavericky

Earlier this week, ex-Congressman Tom Tancredo said former Colorado Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton, then on the cusp of formally announcing her candidacy for the U.S. Senate, wasn't "ready for prime time" and was only running because she'd been urged to do so by Arizona Senator John McCain. Since ... More >>

Colorado's share of Pfizer drug-marketing settlement a drop in the bucket

John Suthers.​Colorado is set to receive more than $3.5 million from drug leviathan Pfizer in relation to two separate settlements. According to the office of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, the largest of the two deals is related to allegations that the company "improperly marketed fo ... More >>

Colorado's new Medicaid funding plan will leave disabled adults on the outside

Ed Perlmutter gets an earful at health-care meeting in Brighton

On Friday, we shared a video in which folks protesting healthcare reform in Pueblo compared Obamacare to Pol Pot and Adolph Hitler -- and this brand of overheated rhetoric is hardly isolated to that community. Over the weekend at an event in Brighton, pro-healthcare reform rep Ed Perlmutter was gr ... More >>

The ideal healthcare system is in... Grand Junction?

What St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction will look like after completing its "Century Project." In a report about efforts to control healthcare costs broadcast on National Public Radio this morning, Len Nichols, of the New America Foundation, an organization lobbying for reform in a wide array of ... More >>

From the week of June 11, 2009

Get On the Bus

The Best Medicine

Fire Sale

The cost of cigarettes could go up in smoke this November.

Pop Quiz

November 27, 2003
Biggest Turkeys Ever!

In Sickness and in Wealth

Medicaid patients could be facing death by a thousand cuts.

Cutting Edge

A plan by some Colorado leaders to trim hard-won health-insurance benefits could leave consumers feeling the pain.

A Dying Wish

Peggy Quinn wanted to make death easier on the terminally ill, but she's made life hard on everyone else.

Mind Games

The squeeze in managed mental-health care is choking patients and providers alike.

Separation Anxiety

Doctors thought banding together might give them more power at Rose Medical Center. Instead, they wound up owning their own hospital.

Mental Anguish

Rescuing the mentally ill has brought millions to the Mental Health Corporation of Denver--as well as complaints of coercion, mismanagement and neglect.

Letters

Running Out of Patients

Denver General gets ready to launch a downscale marketing campaign.

UNHEALTHY COMPETITION?

A NEW, HARD-SELL HMO STORMS INTO COLORADO, HOPING TO SCOOP UP MEDICAID BUSINESS.

PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES

BLUE CROSS SETTLES CO-PAY COMPLAINTS BUT STILL INTENDS TO CUT ITS OWN DEALS ON MEDICAL BILLS.

THE SICK BILL

A COMPARISON OF TWO HOSPITAL BILLS SHOWS HOW COST-SHIFTING CAN KNEECAP CUSTOMERS.