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Polis Signs Order Creating New Office To Save People Money On Health Care

DENVER (CBS4) - Gov. Jared Polis is following through on his promise to address the skyrocketing cost of health care. He signed an executive order creating the Office of Saving People Money on Health Care.

Maybe no one makes a better case for it than Rachel Wall, who says she had to ration her EpiPens because she couldn't afford insurance.

"More than once I sat holding my EpiPen as my throat swelled and I wondered if maybe I could get away with not using it this time," she said. "I tried to just give it a few more minutes because if I used it, I'd have to buy another."

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Rachel Wall (credit: CBS)

Polis says the new office, headed up by his lieutenant governor, Lt. Gov. Diane Primavera, will identify and address the underlying causes of high health care costs.

The office will establish a health care cabinet made up of all government agencies involved in health care oversight. With the help of the legislature, they will create policies aimed at lowering costs and increasing access.  The announcement came on the same day State Rep. Dylan Roberts bill to create a state health insurance option got its first committee hearing.

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(credit: CBS)

"We're trying to get at the people who are faced with little to no choices on the insurance market to give them a new and competitive, affordable choice for health insurance," Roberts said.

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Rep. Dylan Roberts speaks with CBS4's Shaun Boyd (credit: CBS)

Roberts says the state will be able to keep premiums and deductibles lower because it has no profit motive, and he says the plan would be run out of the Medicaid office.

"So it won't be that much more staff, it won't be that much more resources that are needed and once the plan gets created, it's funded by the people who purchase the plan through monthly premiums," he said.

Roberts represents Eagle County, which has the most expensive health insurance costs in the country.

"When families in my district and across rural Colorado are facing two thousand, three thousand dollar a month premiums for them and their families, they are choosing between paying the mortgage or buying health insurance, so a lot of people are going without health insurance these days."

The bill charges state regulators with developing the new insurance option and presenting it to lawmakers by next November. The legislature would then decide whether to adopt it.  At this point, lobbyists for insurers and hospitals have not taken a position on the bill and the lobbyist for physicians says they support it.  The bill has a Republican co-sponsor and it is expected to pass. Polis's office says he supports it.

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