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Taking the legislative reins for Connect for Health Colorado

I acquired a new assignment this year, which is to chair the legislative oversight committee for Colorado’s new health-insurance exchange, known as Connect for Health Colorado.

While I’d been on the committee for a few years since its inception, I asked last fall to be taken off the committee as I felt it wasn’t doing its job as an oversight committee and, personally, I wasn’t breaking through the logjams.

After years of asking lots of questions about how Colorado was developing the state-run exchange and seeking unvarnished accounts of how implementation was progressing, I had too many unanswered questions, literally, to stay on the committee in good conscience.

It turns out that my deep concerns about the exchange’s establishment and progress were unfortunately well-founded and not partisan posturing as some had dismissed them to be. A few months after I went off the committee, a scathing limited performance audit of the exchange was published by the state auditor in late 2014.

The legislative audit committee now has requested a more complete audit of the exchange. A bill passed both chambers this session to make that happen; now, it is waiting to be signed by the governor. The more comprehensive audit will take many months to complete, but we can’t wait to improve upon the exchange’s operational issues. The audit, by its nature, will address past performance issues. Too many Coloradans continue to struggle today with obtaining mandated insurance coverage through the exchange.

Because the Republicans won the majority in the Colorado Senate, President Bill Cadman was responsible for naming the chair of the oversight committee to take the lead this year. Recently, he asked me to return to the committee and to run it as I see necessary to provide meaningful legislative oversight of the exchange.

The first order of business for me was to begin regular and frequent meetings of the committee. We’ll meet biweekly until the end of the legislative session in May. Last week, I introduced a bill – cosponsored by all of the legislators from both sides of the aisle on the oversight committee – that’ll enable us to hold more hearings during the interim so we can dig deeper into the exchange’s operations and problems.

The exchange has its own board, and its duties are laid out by the law creating the exchange in 2011. The federal Affordable Care Act also adds many layers of complexity and mandates that affect the exchange. The legislative committee is required to follow these laws. We’ll also be sorting out what still is under our control of what is characterized as a state-run exchange.

The insurance exchange has worked for many but not for enough people who are compelled to use it. To achieve wider public confidence, including my own, there will need to be greatly increased transparency and accountability in the exchange’s operations.

To begin on those goals, I’ve had the legislative information technology team set up a feedback mechanism on the state’s legislative website. You can find that at www.state.co.us and follow the link to year-round committees. From there, you can submit feedback on Connect for Health Colorado.

All types of feedback are encouraged, including from consumers, health-care providers, brokers, accountants and insurance carriers. You can listen to our hearings online, and I’ll provide periodic updates on the committee’s progress.

Ellen Roberts represents Senate District 6 in Colorado’s General Assembly. The district encompasses Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel counties. Contact Sen. Roberts by phone at (303) 866-4884 or by email at ellen.roberts.senate@state.co.us.



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