skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Coloradans Face Challenges Accessing Medical Aid in Dying Law

play audio
Play

Thursday, February 16, 2017   

DENVER – When Colorado passed a new medical aid-in-dying law last November, two-thirds of voters agreed that people with terminal illnesses should have the legal option to take prescribed life-ending medicines.

But for many Coloradans that option remains off the table, due to lack of coverage or willing providers, or both.

The group Compassion and Choices has launched a campaign to make sure all Coloradans can access the new law.

Kat West, the group’s national director of policy and programs, says one of the biggest challenges is making sure members of the public, and especially doctors, know how the law works.

"So that when their patients ask about this end-of-life option, and they will, that they are prepared and they are competent around medical aid-in-dying," she states.

Significant obstacles remain. The cost of Seconal, a preferred end-of-life medicine, doubled at many pharmacies after being acquired by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Faith-based Centura Health and SCL Health hospitals, and Colorado's largest for-profit chain HealthONE, have opted not to participate in the new law.

Denver Health relies heavily on Medicaid and Medicare funds that can't be used for aid-in-dying, but hopes to opt in by summer.

Insurers Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealthcare and Anthem are still working on policies.

West surveyed communities three years ago in Oregon, which enacted its medical aid-in-dying legislation in 1997. She found for doctors and patients not educated and empowered to use the law, access was limited, and low-income people had the hardest time getting care.

"If you were lucky enough – or if you, you know, have enough perseverance or enough of an advocate, maybe in a family member – you might get access to the law," she states.

Melissa Brenkert of Littleton could only watch as her sister suffered body-wracking seizures before dying in Texas, which, like most states, has no medical aid-in-dying option.

She says ultimately, a person should have the right to decide what happens in the last chapter of his or her life.

"Those decisions shouldn't be made for you by your doctor, by your government, by the pharmaceutical company, by your family,” Brenkert stresses. “It is an incredibly personal choice, and one that needs to be respected."

This story was produced with original reporting from Michael Booth for The Colorado Trust.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Many factors affect a customer's bill amount, including energy usage, weather, and the number of days in a billing period, according to Arizona Public Service. (Jason Yoder/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …


Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …


More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social media platform X temporarily shutdown searches of "Taylor Swift" following the release of explicit deepfake images in early 2024. (Mdv Edwards/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

Social Issues

play sound

A 2023 study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center concluded the number of Nebraskans with a mental health or substance abuse disorder has pr…

Environment

play sound

A farm group is helping Iowa agriculture producers find ways to reduce the amount of nitrogen they use on their crops. Excess nitrates can wind up …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021