New Colorado Bill Is Fighting To Protect Preventative Healthcare
The Senate Health & Human Services Committee met yesterday to hear a new bill which will impact public health, as well as health care and health insurance coverage in Colorado. The bill is structured to protect preventative health care accessibility by abolishing copays. Anyone, no matter their insurance status, will be able to immediately obtain services such as preventive measures, screenings, and treatments. The bill was introduced as a precautionary measure following the recent uptick in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) across the state.
A state report by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment was published last year, addressing the alarming rate of increase in individuals being diagnosed with transferrable STIs. The diseases showing the most exponential cases were gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis; all three had the highest figures ever recorded in the state.
If passed, SB-20-156, also referred to as the “Protecting Preventive Health Care Coverage” bill, has a lot of potential to reduce those numbers. These expected results will be due to taking on a preventative approach rather than a treatment-after-infection approach.
Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado (PPVC) fully endorses the bill, SB-20-156, because it will offer a wider variety of family planning services and contraceptives than are currently available without any cost-sharing requirements. SB-20-156 is also taking steps to put more power in the patients hands by allowing Colorado Medicaid patients to pick their own provider. However, this implementation would only apply to family-planning related services.
Vicki Cowart, president & CEO of PPVC, commented, “PPVC supports expansion of access to healthcare, especially these commonsense efforts that prevent health issues before they occur … This bill would protect preventive health coverage from any political attacks and ensure that both men and women get equal treatment for sexually transmitted infections.”
The bill is not introducing any new laws or procedures; however, it will be restructuring and expanding policies that are already in place. Additional benefits will include access to blood pressure screenings, lung cancer screenings, osteoporosis screenings, urinary incontinence screenings, and statin medication. Proponents of the bill are in support of patient-based initiatives that outweigh the monetary benefit of insurance tactics.
