{"id":2448433,"date":"2019-09-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312486"},"modified":"2019-09-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T06:00:00","slug":"polis-high-on-making-insurance-rates-lower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/polis-high-on-making-insurance-rates-lower\/","title":{"rendered":"Polis high on making insurance rates lower"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen Institute\u2019s Kitty Boone, left, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, center left, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, right, listens as Colorado Governor Jared Polis addresses the crowd at the Democratic Governors Panel in Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen on Friday, September 6, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
KELSEY BRUNNER<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Western Slope residents on the individual market will see their insurance premiums drop by nearly 30% come Jan. 1, which is another example of why Colorado\u2019s health care initiatives are working, according to Gov. Jared Polis.<\/p>\n

Speaking publicly in Aspen on Friday, Polis shared the stage at Paepcke Auditorium with fellow Democratic Govs. Kate Brown of Oregon and Michelle Grisham of New Mexico, touting his early work in office that has included providing free kindergarten at public schools and rolling out initiatives to make health care more affordable for Coloradoans.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than being part of this national debate,\u201d the first-term governor said, \u201cwhich is sometimes frustrating to watch, where people are swaying back and forth and saying, \u2018Is it single-payer (health care), is it five payers, is it Medicaid, is it Medicare for all?\u2019 We\u2019re just saying, \u2018Look, we have this landscape and we can do a lot more with it in our state to save people money on health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, Polis started the Office of Saving People Money on Health Care, which is overseen by Lt. Gov Dianne Primavera.<\/p>\n

So far, the office has lived up to its name, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern Colorado is particularly transformative,\u201d he said. \u201cHere in Pitkin County and across western Colorado, with our reinsurance package that we were able to get into law \u2014 Oregon has a similar one \u2014 rates are quite literally coming down here in the individual market by about 30 percent Jan. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using some $260 million in state and federal money, the reinsurance program will help fund the costs for people in the individual market with the most expensive medical bills. As a result, insurance providers are lowering their premiums.<\/p>\n

The cost reduction would help reverse a trend where customers on the individual market, as recently as last year, had seen their annualized premiums skyrocket by some 72% in three years, according to the state\u2019s insurance division. The individual market is comprised of buyers who don\u2019t get insurance through their employer or relatives, and don\u2019t have Medicare or Medicaid.<\/p>\n

The lowered costs not only mean folks on the individual market will see a nearly one-third drop in their premiums, but it will enable those who are currently uninsured to be covered in the future, Polis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also opens up the ability to be insured to people who simply can\u2019t afford it at its current cost,\u201d he said. \u201cSo by costing about a third less, it allows a lot more people to access health care insurance on the exchange, the individual market, which is the most price sensitive part of the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another idea Polis is working on is inspired by Summit County\u2019s Peak Health Alliance, a consortium of some of the county\u2019s largest employers working with providers to lower rates next year. That initiative has the potential to realize savings of another 15% for Coloradoans, he said.<\/p>\n

Polis is scheduled to be in Keystone, Summit County, on Monday to announce the 2020 plans and premiums for the Peak Health Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our (plans) going forward are also targeting saving employers money, in the employer market and the small-group market,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re modeling that after an effort that\u2019s going on in Summit County, in January, which is the alliance model, and there is similar work on the ground in Eagle and Pitkin and La Plata counties, and we\u2019re looking at the statewide alliance model. This effectively allows for a negotiation with providers across different insurers, for customers who need leverage. So if we\u2019re able to negotiate in Summit County in the small-group market, the individual market, it will be the large-group market soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown of Oregon said state leaders bear the responsibility to make health care more affordable.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the areas where governors can play a key role is making sure we are taking a leadership role in fighting the current administration,\u201d she said, referring to President Donald Trump\u2019s effort to roll back the Affordable Care Act that was passed under the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Oregon also passed a health care package that covers every child in the state \u201cregardless of their immigration status,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we are at 100 percent coverage for our children now.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also touted the state\u2019s Women\u2019s Reproductive Health Equity Act, which she said \u201censures every woman in the great state of Oregon will have full access to the full complement of reproductive health services, regardless of her income, regardless of her ZIP code, and regardless of her immigration status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grisham said New Mexico embedded Affordable Care Act protections into state law and is eyeing ways to reduce pharmaceutical costs and create universal health care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thrilled that primarily Democratic governors, but not entirely, are really focused on making a difference for their citizens in health care,\u201d she said, noting more than 50% of New Mexico\u2019s residents are on Medicaid.<\/p>\n

The discussion was part of The Aspen Institute\u2019s Hurst Lecture Series. The institute\u2019s Kitty Boone, who runs the thinktank\u2019s public programs and is executive director of the Aspen Ideas Festival, moderated the discussion.<\/p>\n

rcarroll@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen Institute\u2019s Kitty Boone, left, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, center left, and Oregon Governor Kate Brown, right, listens as Colorado Governor Jared Polis addresses the crowd at the Democratic Governors Panel in Paepcke Auditorium in Aspen on Friday, September 6, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)KELSEY BRUNNER Western Slope residents on the individual market […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 07:38:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}