Sisters of Charity hospital deal altering Denver-area care

NASHVILLE — In the weeks leading up to the National Tea Party Convention, Judson Phillips didn’t do much talking to the media. The founder of Tea Party Nation, the chief organizer of the conference alongside his wife Shelley, was buffeted by attacks from Tea Party activists who accused him of staging a costly, “elite” convention, and dirtying the reputation of the movement by paying Sarah Palin $100,000 to speak there. On January 14, Tea Party Nation put out word that only five conservative media outlets would get full access to the convention. On January 30, they issued an email to their internal list pushing back against “baseless accusations and criticism” from angry Tea Party activists.

DENVER– A controversial bill that aims to diversify and open up decision-making at Pinnacol Assurance, the impressively profitable quasi-governmental workers compensation insurance provider, passed out of the House Judicial Committee Friday on a mostly partisan vote. The hearing highlighted the tensions that define Pinnacol, an entity designed to serve the public but also required to act as a business.

DENVER– A packed hearing Thursday for a bill that seeks to address wide differences in cost based on gender in the individual health insurance market in Colorado saw clashes erupt between male and female members of the committee. House Bill 1008, sponsored by Reps Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, seeks to distribute and lower those costs for women who don’t have employer or state health plans. The motion ultimately passed out of committee on an 8 to 2 vote.

DENVER– Two Denver Democrats reluctantly diluted the bill they co-sponsored aimed at expanding maternity coverage in Colorado. The move took attendees at the House hearing for the bill Wednesday by surprise. Health insurance lobbyists shuffled their papers and gazed at one another as Reps. Jerry Frangas and Beth McCann explained that they would amend the bill to make it more friendly to the insurance industry in order to make sure it passed through committee and onto the floor of the House.

Colorado Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’s bold move to pass health reform legislation that would include a public health insurance option has gained significant support in the week since he first began circulating among lawmakers and on the web a letter that he co-authored with Maine Democrat Chellie Pingree outlining the idea. Polis sent the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today with the signatures of 120 Representatives attached.

The payday loan industry gouges Coloradans like it does Americans across the country, targeting mostly low-income single women, including military spouses. Denver Democratic state Rep. Mark Ferrandino tried and failed to introduce legislation in 2008 that would have curbed the worst of the abuses, where desperate borrowers take loans at hundreds of percent interest and enter a debt cycle they rarely are able to exit. Ferrandino may try it again this year.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck got creamed on the numbers this week. He drew $40,000 in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to GOP frontrunner Jane Norton’s $550,000 haul. Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet pulled in a cool $1.1 million.

“That’s today’s story,” said Buck campaign manager Walt Klein.

In the wake of a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing today on the “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” military policy that forces gay service members to remain closeted, Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall pressed for more urgent action to effect a repeal.

WASHINGTON– As states from New Mexico to Illinois passed payday loan reform laws over the past few years, the movement to curb customer-gouging short-term high-interest loans seemed to be gaining steam and growing teeth. Ohio and Arizona voters even took to the polls to approve rate caps on payday lenders, regardless of threats that the industry would fold if it had to reduce rates from as high as 400 percent to 36 percent or less.