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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Pushing Health Care Forward in Colorado

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Wednesday, June 3, 2015   

DENVER - The numbers are in for Obamacare in Colorado. The percentage of uninsured has dropped from 17 percent to 11 percent, more than 150,000 signed up through Connect for Health Colorado, and 70,000 more were added through Medicaid expansion.

Increased coverage is good news, said Lynn Quincy, associate director for health policy at Consumers Union, since people with insurance are charged more when the uninsured can't pay for care. However, she said, there's still a long way to go to bring down costs.

"Of everything we spend on goods and services, 17 percent of it goes to health care," she said, "That means 17 percent of your dollars go to health care, even if you didn't go to the doctor last year."

Quincy said Americans are overpaying by up to 30 percent for health care, and that she believes a more coordinated approach is needed to keep costs under control. She added that creating incentives for patients to seek preventive care by eliminating copays would save more money in the long term.

Another challenge for consumers is access to the doctors they want as a result of fewer providers within health-care networks, Quincy said. Shortages of primary-care physicians taking new patients could lead to longer wait times and reduce the options for people shopping for coverage plans, she said.

"They probably want to take a careful look," she said, "and make sure that the doctors and hospitals that they like to use are in the plan's network."

Quincy was a panelist at Tuesday's "Colorado Voices for Coverage" conference, organized by the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. The event focused on how the state can maintain the health coverage it has gained and further expand coverage and access under the Affordable Care Act.


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