Our current health care “system” is in crisis. Colorado consumers have seen sky-rocketing premiums (82% increase 2000 – 2004 for families, 140% increase 2000 – 2005 for small employers) and plummeting benefits. So what has changed over the decades? Profit. We’ve seen a corporate take-over of healthcare and most people don’t know what hit them. Ever wonder what is really driving up the cost of our healthcare? I want to share with you my assessment of the problems and some of my thoughts on solutions.

• Pharmaceutical Advertising: Companies are spending billions per year on direct television advertising for prescriptions (a practice that used be illegal under federal law that is driving up the cost of prescription medicine.) Most are spending 4 or 5 times as much on marketing as on research.

Solution: Reinstate prior federal prohibition against direct TV advertising for prescription drugs (FEDERAL).

• Overcharging Insurance Premiums: Most states require a rate-review process before an insurance company can file rate increases. Colorado doesn’t. Colorado allows insurance companies to file rate increases in any amount, at any time, without any oversight. It works well for them ($$$), but not so well for consumers.

Solution: Implement insurance rate review for price gouging in Colorado (STATE).

• Cuts in Funding Public Research: As the states and federal government pulled back on funding public research there are fewer public medical patents. Private companies now own most of the patents, allowing monopolies over healthcare pricing, driving up the cost of healthcare.

Solution: Increase publicly funded research and therefore publicly held healthcare patents consider reducing duration of healthcare patents (STATE & FEDERAL).

(more…)

(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Friday, I drove over to Montrose for what has become a pretty regular trek to their annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. I attended my first JJ Dinner in Montrose in 2000, when I was running to be a national convention delegate from the Third CD. Since then, I’ve been to several, including one where I first donned the white hair and suit to perform as Harry Truman, co-keynoting with then-Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.

This was easily, though, the most well-attended one of them all. Each year, it seems they have to find a larger and larger venue for the dinner. This year’s was at the Montrose Pavillion, a wonderful facility with the capacity to handle the 200+ on hand to hear several great speakers. Montrose Dems, led by Chair Randy See, did a great job getting participation from surrounding counties. I sat with the Delta County Chair; Sen. Gail Schwartz and Reps. Bernie Buescher and Kathleen Curry all attended and helped boost the crowd.

The keynote speaker was Andrew Romanoff, who did a wonderful job (as usual) combining humor with policy discussion to entertain the crowd. The crowd was buzzing with one key point: it is finally okay to hold your head high as a Democrat in Montrose again. The county Dems have worked over the past several years to make progress, and the crowd made it clear that the tipping point had been reached.

The big talk in Montrose lately has been an effort by GOP Rep. Ray Rose to bring down Montrose’s only Democratic County Commissioner, Bill Patterson. Bill and I both served as county chairs together, and I know what kind of man Bill is — an honorable and decent public servant. Apparently, Montrose residents know this too — that’s why every single letter to the editor submitted to the Montrose paper has been in support of Bill. That may also be why the Montrose Republicans voted 10-2 against supporting Rose’s efforts to recall Patterson. (FYI, the two votes came from Rose and his wife!) This appears to be part of a larger coordinated effort to smear Democratic county officials across the Western Slope. I’ll write more about that in a separate post.

Ray Rose’s craven partisan attacks may turn out to be one of the best things for the Western Slope. People are coming out of the woodwork to bring common sense to the Legislature from that House district. And, it appears that they are going to have a GREAT option in 2008: Montrose City Councilwoman (and former Mayor) Noelle Hagan announced her candidacy Friday night! Indeed, the biggest and longest ovation Friday night was not given to Speaker Romanoff; instead, that honor was bestowed on Hagan when she made her announcement!

Western Slope voters deserve so much better than Ray Rose is giving them. For the longest time, Western Slope leaders — from either party — eschewed partisanship in favor of getting things done. Leaders like Bernie Buescher, Jim Isgar, and Kathleen Curry still have that work ethic. But too many of our Western Slope Republican elected leaders like Rose and Rep. Josh Penry simply do not. Bill Patterson is my friend, and he’s a member of our Democratic family. When you attack my family, you better be ready for a fight. I’ve pledged to come back to Montrose, Delta and the other counties in HD 58 as often as it takes to elect Noelle Hagan, and to send Ray Rose into an early retirement next year. Whether it makes other targeting lists (and it very well should), it has made the top of MY targeting list!

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Saturday morning, I made my way just a bit up the road to Delta for a breakfast rally for Delta Democrats. Many of the same folks (Schwartz, Buescher, Curry, and Romanoff) who had been in Montrose the night before stuck around to come to enjoy pancakes and fruit in Delta Saturday morning.

I had already felt a little guilty in that Delta may very well have been the largest county in the state that I had not been to for a Democratic Party event. After the warm welcome I received in Delta, I felt even more guilty. Delta Chair Eric Jessen and his wonderful team did a great job planning for the event and were very ready for the 100+ that showed up.

Delta is another one of those counties going through a transformation. Delta Dems shocked the state when they delivered just over 5000 votes for Bill Ritter last year, earning them extra seats on the State Central and Executive Committees for the first time in anybody’s memory. Then, just last week at the July 4th parade, their enthusiasm and excitement earned them the top prize for the nonprofit / political category, and third place overall among parade entries!

Anyway, when I apologized for taking so long to visit Delta, there was some hissing. But when I promised to come back as often as it takes to elect Noelle Hagan and help Delta Democrats, the crowd was placated and cheering. So I’ll be back.

 UPDATE: I made a HORRIBLE error and forgot to mention that Senator Gail Schwartz, a rising star in the Senate, was also in both Delta and Montrose.  Sorry!

Okay, I’m sorry I haven’t posted in the last few days — it’s not because I haven’t been busy; quite the contrary is true.

We arrived back from Annapolis on Wednesday night. Wednesday morning was filled with a few more training sessions and seminars before Sherry, Pat, and I set off for a side trip to Baltimore on the way to our 5:30 pm flight. We enjoyed some wonderful seafood at one of Pat’s favorite restaurants, then took a nice stroll along the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. Before heading home to Canon Wednesday, I decided to take a detour downtown to attend a bit of Denver’s Drinking Liberally event. I’d always wanted to make it, but just never had been in Denver on any of the scheduled nights.

There was a good crowd still there when I arrived — easily 30-40 people, including freshman State Representative Joe Rice from Arapahoe County. Representative Rice is a fresh new face in the Legislature, but he’s already turning heads and impressing folks statewide for his intellect and abilities as a legislator. It was so great to see him at the DL event and see the great reception he received from the Metro-area activists.

Thursday, I should have been in Denver to help welcome Governor Dean. Alas, I had not seen my children in nearly a week, so I decided to stay home and rest and spend time with them (especially considering the schedule I had for the next few days — see below). I’ve heard from our Party Treasurer, Mark Ferrandino, that the Dean events on Thursday went very well, and the State Party raised a fair amount of money from those events.

Friday night, I attended the Colorado Young Democrats Celebrity Poker Night — the second year in a row that I had attended. This is easily one of the most fun events I get to attend each year — partially just because the view is stupendous. The event is held on the rooftop of a high-rise condo building just off the edge of Downtown Denver. The view of downtown and the mountains is breath-taking, and at night it gets even better. Watching the sunset there joined by a great group of like-minded young people is one of the best experience you can have.

I had meant to get to the poker tables — really, I did! But I got so caught up in conversations with old friends, and meeting new ones, that I just never made it over there. I did get to hear about all of the great plans that are being made to keep young people involved in the electoral process in 2008. Governor Dean has been discussing the importance of the youth vote more and more at DNC events — he made a point of encouraging state parties to do more to reach out to Young Dems and College Dems when we met with him in Annapolis.

Finally, on Saturday, the Site Selection Committee for the Colorado Democratic Convention and Assembly met in Denver, at Denver Dems Headquarters. We spent quite a while dissembling and comparing the bids from Broomfield and Colorado Springs to host the Convention next year. We’re working on setting site visits for early June and requesting more information on a variety of topics from both communities.

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I do have some photos up now from several of the above events, including some from the last day of the ASDC meeting in Annapolis. Feel free to check them out at:
http://www.DemNotes.com/photos

At Colorado Confidential, Mark Mehringer has posted a detailed analysis of statewide voter registration numbers over the past two years. When it comes to data a picture really is worth 1,000 words, and Mark has produced some nice graphs that illustrate noticable trends. Among others, the Republican registration advantage has declined 16% in the last two years, and the key “swing” counties Jefferson and Arapahoe have in particular seen Republican registration advantages narrow.

Read the whole story here:

http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1786