IDENTITY THEFT—CoPIRG’s Rex Wilmouth (behind speaker on right) stands with a victim of identity theft who is testifying at a press conference along with Sen. Dan Grossman (behind speaker on left). Gov. Owens signed a CoPIRG-backed bill allowing consumers to freeze credit reports.

Each year, CoPIRG will share a report on our advocacy in the Colorado Legislature and provide an update on our agenda, with the successes and challenges our proposals have faced over the course of the year. The following three major areas of advocacy spell out our recent top priorities and how they fared at the Capitol.

Cheaper Prescription Drugs
Prescription drug prices are rising faster than any other health care cost. CoPIRG research shows that much of this cost is due to dramatic increases in spending on marketing, advertising and administrative costs (33 percent), and not on research and development (11 percent) as many companies claim.

The combined profits for the 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) amounted to more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion) in 2002.

This year, CoPIRG worked on the following health care legislation:

Senate Bill 102: Sponsored by Sen. Bob Hagedorn and Rep. Alice Madden, SB 102 would create a multistate prescription drugs bulk purchasing pool to lower the costs of prescription drugs. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: Gov. Owens vetoed SB 102.

Senate Bill 22: SB 22, sponsored by Sen. Steve Johnson and Rep. Betty Boyd, would create a Medicaid Preferred Drug List to lower the costs of prescription drugs. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: Died on the House floor on a 33-32 vote.

House Bill 1128: Rep. Bob McCluskey and Sen. Bob Hagedorn sponsored HB 1128, which required hospitals to disclose their infection rates. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: Died in the Senate Appropriations Committee due to lack of state funding.

House Bill 1300: Sponsored by Rep. Jack Pommer and Sen. Lou Entz, HB 1300 would make Pharmacy Benefit Managers more accountable to the people they are supposed to represent. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: Died in the House Health and Human Services committee due to opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

Identity Theft
Identity theft is the theft of one’s personal identification for the purpose of stealing one’s personal finances, opening new lines of credit under his or her name, or impersonating the victim in connection with a crime. According to the attorney general, in 2004, identity theft was the number one consumer crime in Colorado, in large part because Colorado statutes do very little to require financial institutions to protect consumers’ private information.

CoPIRG worked on the following identity theft legislation:

Senate Bill 137: Sen. Dan Grossman and Rep. Angie Paccione worked with CoPIRG on SB 137, which will allow Colorado consumers to freeze their credit reports to prevent identity theft (for more information, see story on page one).

Result: Gov Owens signed SB 137 into law.

House Bill 1116: Rep. Bill Crane sponsored HB 1116, which would classify identity theft as a felony. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: Died in the House Appropriations committee because it would cost the state money.

Affordable Insurance
Insurance companies continually try to cut coverage and services to the insured while raising rates and premiums.

Most recently, insurance companies are using credit scoring in order to raise an individual’s insurance premiums, in some cases making coverage prohibitively expensive, if not denying an individual coverage altogether.

CoPIRG worked on the following health insurance legislation:

Senate Bill 195: Sponsored by Sen. Lois Tochtrop and Rep. Dorothy Butcher, SB 195 would ban credit scoring for use in insurance decisions. Many insurance companies use consumers’ credit information to determine whether they will offer homeowner and automobile insurance to consumers and at what price. Insurance rates should be based on the consumer’s track record for home maintenance and personal driving history, not on credit rating. CoPIRG urged a yes vote on this bill.

Result: This bill was withdrawn for consideration by the Senate sponsor.