Colorado Medical Society

Introduced by: Denver Medical Society

Subject: Committee to Study Health Insurance

Referred to: Reference Committee on Health Affairs

WHEREAS, the 2005 Colorado Legislature considered a bill that would make the State of Colorado an insurer for small employer health plans, and

WHEREAS, the 2006 Legislature is likely to reconsider this type of legislation, and

WHEREAS, commercial health insurance companies extract between 10 and 30% of each health insurance premium dollar for overhead and profit, preventing the use of these monies for direct health care, and

WHEREAS, commercial health insurance companies and employers are failing to insure an increasing number of the state’s citizens, and

WHEREAS, federal ERISA rules complicate the regulation of health insurance at the state level, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that new mechanisms of health insurance should be studied and considered, and be it further

RESOLVED, that a committee of the President’s choice be assigned the task of analyzing the existing Colorado health insurance market and projected trends in the health insurance industry in Colorado, and be it further

RESOLVED, that this committee will develop recommendations and CMS policy in the following areas:

1. What are the likely effects of the proposed expansion by state government into what has historically been the private commercial health insurance industry? What are the positives and the negatives?

2. Should there be statutory changes to how health insurance is regulated in the state? Should health insurance be regulated as a public utility, for example?

3. How can CMS become an effective agent in returning health insurance to its original intentions, i.e., as a means of sharing financial risk among the greatest number of people?

4. What can be done at the state level to counteract the federal preemption by ERISA?

FISCAL IMPACT: $3,240