Committee backs statewide study of universal-health payment options; funding to come from donations

The House Health and Human Services Committee voted to send Senate Bill 45 — a study of statewide, publicly financed health care payment systems — to the Committee on Finance with a favorable recommendation, 9–4.

Senate Bill 45 would commission the Colorado School of Public Health to expand earlier modeling and produce a more detailed microsimulation analysis of options to achieve universal coverage through a range of payment systems. The bill directs the school to evaluate potential cost, provider reimbursement, impacts on hospitals and private insurers, out-of-pocket costs for patients and other stakeholder effects.

Representative McCormick, a bill co-sponsor, framed the measure as a “homework assignment” to gather more data than prior work did; McCormick said the new study will model provider reimbursement and other variables to inform the…