Colorado state Rep. Janak Joshi and Senator Kevin Lundberg are sponsoring HB11-1025, which would repeal the hospital provider “fee” instituted in 2009. Linda Gorman of the Independence Institute explains how the so-called “fee” is really a tax, and hence violates the Colorado Constitution:
The department [of Health Care Policy and Financing] and its allies in the legislature knew that they were instituting a provider tax, but they did not want people to have the opportunity to vote on it. They called it a “fee” instead.
In a letter from John Bartholomew, director of the department’s Budget and Finance Office, … the state assures [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] that “the non-federal share of the proposed Medicaid … payments will be funded solely with fees assessed on hospital providers, which is designated as a provider tax under 42 CFR §433.68.”
A later letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services … approves the form of the “tax on certain inpatient hospital patient days,” discusses the “tax structure,” which Colorado will be allowed, and refers to section 1903(w)(3)(C) of the Social Security Act, which discusses the conditions that a tax must fulfill in order to qualify for Medicaid matching funds.
Media sources were also clear about the fact that Colorado was enacting a provider tax. The headline for an April 28, 2010 article on amednews.com refers to “Colorado’s tax on inpatient and outpatient revenue.”
Read the whole article at HealthPolicySolutions.org: Colorado’s Health Care “Affordability Act” should be repealed.
