Patient Power

Colorado “cares,” but markets provide

From the Denver Post:

Gov. Bill Ritter suffered a quiet loss Tuesday when the Senate gave initial approval to a bill that would repeal a program created by the first bill he signed into law.

The Colorado Cares Rx Program was created in 2007 as a way to help low-income Coloradans access affordable prescription drugs. Ritter gave it special status by making the bill that created it the first he signed as governor.

At the time, sponsors said the program would help more than 250,000 Coloradans, and Ritter called it a “significant step in containing health care costs for so many Coloradans.”…

The state partnered with RxOutreach, the nonprofit branch of a mail-order pharmacy. A Denver Post analysis found many of the drugs available through the program could be bought cheaper at chain pharmacies.

For more on this issue, see here.

• Profit motive lowers Rx prices, politicians don’t
• Colorado HB 1256 would lower insurance costs
• Colorado HB 1293: “The Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act”
• Denver Post: “Udall, Bennet should say ‘no’” to health bill
• Colorado ballot inititiative to block parts of Obama Care