Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed a pair of health care bills that will enshrine federal protections for emergency care in state law and potentially start Colorado down the path of universal health care.
The emergency protections law will give Coloradans confidence that they’ll receive emergency care, no matter what’s happening at the national level, Polis said during the afternoon ceremony. But, in signing the bill ordering a study of universal health care, he added that “we should aim higher” than guaranteed coverage only in the emergency room.
“In this country and in this state, we do health care poorly. We spend twice as much and have worse outcomes than most of the industrialized world,” Polis said when signing Senate Bill 45, which sets in motion the study of universal health care in Colorado. “… Fundamentally, I think there’s the opportunity to do this better.”
SB-45 was a third-time’s-the-charm run at studying the feasibility of a single-player health care system in Colorado. The law requires the Colorado School of Public Health to create a report on model legislation for universal, publicly financed health care in Colorado.
The model legislation will be available this summer, said sponsor Sen. Janice Marchman, a Loveland Democrat. The new analysis of it will be due to lawmakers by the end of 2026. The school of public health’s study will be funded with gifts, grants and donations.
The analysis will also arrive about 10 years after Colorado voters decisively shot down Amendment 69, which would have created a single-payer health care system in the state. Rep. Karen McCormick, a Longmont Democrat and bill sponsor, said she hoped the study would answer questions voters had that ultimately doomed that effort.
“This (study) is going to be the ‘what’ and the ‘how much,’ ” McCormick said. “This study won’t tell us how to do it. We may need to do more work after this, but this first step is very important.”
Any resulting system would preserve private delivery of health care, Polis said — a key priority of his. He noted that many countries that are smaller than Colorado have already achieved universal health care.
Polis also signed Senate Bill 130, one of a trio of bills passed this legislative session aimed at protecting abortion rights in Colorado. The new law requires emergency medical facilities to provide care without discrimination or delay.
While broadly applicable, it was aimed at ensuring people can receive an abortion or miscarriage care in emergency circumstances.
The new law took effect with Polis’ signature. SB-130 codifies the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, at the state level. Earlier this year, the Trump administration dropped a lawsuit against Idaho seeking to enforce the law against hospitals that refused to provide emergency abortion care.
Polis and bill sponsors said “eroding protections” and “uncertainty” with the longtime federal law necessitated state-level protections.
“It is important that we send the message that, regardless of who you are and what your status is, that if you need that care — and even if that is abortion care — you will receive that health care,” Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Fort Collins Democrat and bill sponsor, said.
Polis signed the two other abortion laws last month. Senate Bill 183 implements last fall’s voter-approved change to the state constitution guaranteeing the right to an abortion while also permitting public funding of the procedure. Senate Bill 129 expands the state’s shield law for abortions to protect providers and patients from out-of-state investigations.
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