DENVER, Colo. – It is clear the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over as Colorado’s doctors, nurses, clinicians, hospitals, health insurance providers, biopharmaceutical companies and other frontline workers, continue to tirelessly work together to overcome the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. “They have been there for us, putting their patients and communities first, despite the terrible toll that hospital systems and their staffs have suffered,” Jeff Keener, president and CEO of the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce writes in the Colorado Sun.

Keener pushes back on an outdated analysis that claims Colorado hospitals have the nation’s highest profit margins and points to a recent Common Sense Institute report, writing, “That’s a shocking claimwhen you consider today’s reality. The costs of fighting COVID-19 have demolished hospital budgets all across the country. Here in Colorado, hospitals are dealing with losses of between $4.6 billion and $7.1 billion from the past year.”

He adds, “It turns out the Colorado Business Group on Health analysis relies on data from three years ago, which might as well be three decades ago given all that has changed in the pandemic’s wake.”Keener continues, “Not only that, the report ignored more recent data from the Colorado Hospital Association showing significant cost reductions in 2019.”

He highlights the significant reductions in the costs of individual health plans on Colorado’s exchange stating, “Over the last three years, the average benchmark premium in the ACA insurance marketplace has fallen 28% in Colorado, and our benchmark premiums are 22% below the national average.” He adds, “Overall, average benchmark premiums in Colorado are among the lowest in the nation, according to federal data compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Data from KFF also shows that before the pandemic, we had some of the lowest hospital expenses per capita in the nation.”

Keener continues, “The Colorado legislature is debating whether to [add] a ‘public option’ insurance plan to the choices already available on the state’s Connect for Health Colorado insurance exchange. But a state-level public option simply isn’t justified by the facts on the ground.”

He concludes, “When it comes to public policy, particularly on a matter as significant as a government-run health care system, facts and data matter. We simply cannot afford to make mistakes when it comes to our health care system. It’s too important to our health care heroes. And, it’s too important to my family and yours.”

To read Jeff Keener’s full opinion piece published by the Colorado Sun, CLICK HERE.