The state of Colorado is setting out to create a new public health care insurance option to lower costs, increase competition and allow more residents to access care.
The exact form of the new insurance option and who it might serve remains unknown. But Southwest Colorado residents and health care professionals on Tuesday told Kim Bimestefer, executive director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, that they want reforms to address costs, transparency and waste within the health care industry.
“Medical prices are doubling roughly every 12 years. ... We are getting to the point where people are not going to be able to afford it,” said Guinn Unger with Health Care Durango, an educational group.
Bimestefer is traveling the state to ask residents how they think a public health care option, mandated by newly approved state legislation, should work.
“We don’t want to break what’s working,” she said.
Bimestefer didn’t have any details to share about the new public health care option that will be released Nov. 15.
Instead, she asked the crowd of about 25 what segment of the population the health care option should cover and how it should function.
Some residents would like the new option to be open to everyone because the price of health care is rising dramatically.
Insurance broker Kristin Hoff said a new option should fill in some critical gaps.
For example, those who must purchase insurance on their own and do not qualify for tax credits to offset the cost of insurance on the state health care exchange face high premiums.
“Those are the people that are really hurting,” she said.
Some employers also choose to subsidize insurance for their employees, but not the family members of those employees. Those family members do not qualify for subsidies to purchase health care plans through the state health care exchange, which also leaves those residents with huge premium costs, she said.
“That’s been a huge problem,” she said.
Residents were also interested in greater price transparency for medical procedures, which would allow patients to make good choices for themselves. Over time, price transparency could help bring costs down, Hoff said.
However, price transparency is difficult to provide because the prices insurance companies negotiate with health care providers aren’t public and health care reimbursement is complex.
Axis Health System works with so many different insurance plans, it would take someone more than three days to examine all the options, said Bern Heath, Axis’ CEO. The huge number of insurance plans also contributes to administrative costs for health care providers, he said.
Heath supports greater simplicity and equity in the system, although he didn’t specify how a reformed health care system would function.
“We ought to have a system, one system that serves everyone,” he said.
Jay Short, a Durango insurance broker, expressed some skepticism about the new public option because it lacks any detail.
“We are preparing something and we don’t know how much it costs,” he said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
