Bipartisan health agreement unravels in Colo.

By The AP
Thursday, March 31, 2011

DENVER — Bipartisan agreement on health care? It didn’t last long in Colorado.

A proposal to set up a state health insurance exchange seemed to be on life support today even as a Senate committee heard hours of testimony from doctors, nurses and businesses supporting the idea.

That’s because a Republican backing the exchange, House Republican Leader Amy Stephens, sent a letter to her colleagues in the Senate suggesting an amendment that could pull the plug on an exchange.

The Democratic sponsor called the amendment a “poison pill.”

A health exchange is a market where individuals and small businesses can pool together for lower premiums. Because exchanges are required under the federal health care law, some conservatives oppose them.

Online:
Senate Bill 200: http://goo.gl/WzURL