As Brian Schwartz has reported, State Senator Bob Hagedorn said that “to load up mandates” into his bill 217 would be its “kiss of death.” Unfortunately, while the bill deserves death, bad legislation has a way of rising from the dead to stalk citizens.
Schwartz points to a May 2 article from the Denver Business Journal by Bob Mook that reports the following:
[Representative Anne] McGihon acknowledged the House is much different than the Senate bill, but it now is supported by a wide range of advocacy groups — some of which originally opposed it. …[T]the bill was severely changed in the House with provisions that removed a coverage cap of $250,000 from the plans. Another House provision would direct the panel to consider plans that cover hospice and palliative care…
I’m not sure where the bill stands now. But even if the bill is stripped of its House provisions, the fact that the bill was immediately subjected to special-interest lobbying indicates where this legislation is headed, if it becomes law. Not only will the new commission it creates be subjected to continual lobbying, but, if the legislature enacts the commission’s recommendations, the legislature too will be subjected to such pressure, so long as the legislation remains in force. It is the inevitable result of politician-controlled medicine.