Health Care
Colorado voters approve Proposition 106, ‘right-to-die’ ballot measure
DENVER – Colorado voters on Tuesday approved a “right-to-die” measure that would allow terminally ill people to receive medication that would end their lives.
With 50 percent of counties reporting, Proposition 106 had garnered 65 percent of the vote.
The proposition would change Colorado statutes to allow any “mentally-capable” adult aged 18+ with a diagnosed terminal illness that leaves them six months or less to live to receive a prescription from a licensed physician that can be taken voluntarily to end their life.
The person’s primary physician and a secondary physician would both have to confirm the person has six or fewer months to live, and would also have to be deemed mentally-capable enough to make the end-of-life decision by two physicians as well.
The change in statute would create immunity from civil or criminal lawsuits, as well as from professional discipline, for the physicians aiding the patient in dying. Under current law, those physicians face felony manslaughter charges for doing so.
But it would also be a class-2 felony for anyone to tamper with a request for the end-of-life medication or coerce a patient into making an end-of-life decision
Colorado is the fifth state to legalize similar measures. Oregon, California, Vermont and Washington already have similar laws on their books. Montana’s lawbooks leave the question open as to whether such measures are legal in the state.
Read more on Proposition 106 here.
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As Affordable Care Act scrutinized for rising premiums, Colorado will see avg increase of 20 percent
DENVER – Coloradans can expect their individual health insurance policies to increase by an average of 20 percent next year as insurers continue to pull individual plans from the state marketplace.
Amid news from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that premiums for plans offered through the Affordable Care Act are expected to rise by an average of 25 percent on the national marketplace, the Colorado Division of Insurance says individual premiums will likely increase by an average of 20.4 percent statewide. Continue reading
Hickenlooper signs bill extending some recreational marijuana rules to medical pot industry
DENVER – Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday signed a bill that will extend several of the rules for the state’s retail marijuana operators on to medical marijuana licensees and manufacturers.
House Bill 1034 passed the Senate unanimously after passing the House by a 63-1 vote in early February.
The bill affects several changes aimed at helping medical marijuana licensees.
First, it creates a license for medical marijuana business operators who receive profits from the industry but are not owners of a property, something already required for recreational marijuana business operators.
The bill also changes state rules that currently allow medical marijuana licensees only to move their business within the city or county, and allow them to move anywhere in the state, as long as it is approved by the state and the local jurisdiction the licensee is moving to.
The change puts medical licensees on the same plane as retail licensees.
Another facet of the bill allows medical marijuana licensees to try and “remediate” any product that tested positive for substances “injurious to health,” such as pesticides, before having to destroy it. However, this rule would apply only to products that test positive for microbials.
That rule currently also applies to recreational retail marijuana licensees, but not to medical licensees, and could help them save product that would otherwise be considered a total loss.
A final change the bill makes is it allows manufacturers of medical marijuana-infused products, like edibles, to buy and sell medical marijuana to or from one another.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, and Sen. Randy Baumgardner, a Republican from the Western Slope.
The original bill did not include the remediation or transfer of medical marijuana between manufacturers, but the language was added by the House ahead of its passage.
The Legislative Council found the bill would have minimal state and local fiscal impacts.
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