Colorado’s new legislative session is underway, with Democrats in charge of both chambers and the governor’s office. Blue control might be a game-changer for health care legislation. Before, it was a stalemate. Democrats controlled the House and blocked Republican bills. The GOP controlled the Senate and blocked Democratic bills.
Nonpartisan nonprofit Colorado Health Institute tracked about 80 Democratic-proposed health bills that died in a Senate committee in recent sessions. But now, CHI spokesman Joe Hanel said, “you have one party that controls the levers of power, so they’ll be able to do a lot more than they had in the past four years.”
If the majority party just dusted off those earlier bills and ran them again, that’s a big agenda already, Hanel said. Unlike before, Democrats can now propose and pass their own health care agenda. They’ll offer an ambitious slate of proposals on a variety of things, from costs to insurance to opioids to e-cigarettes to mental health.
Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio.
