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House Health & Human Services

Tuesday, March 3, 2026·▶ Watch / Listen

Colorado's House Health & Human Services Committee advanced a slate of EMS and sunset-review bills, unanimously designating emergency medical services an essential service while splitting along non-party-line dissents over reauthorizing combative-sports and hemodialysis regulation.

Key Actions

·Sunset Combative Sports Office & CommissionPassed

+ 3 more actions

Notable Quotes

“When a rural EMS agency collapses, there is no mutual aid cavalry coming from Denver. There's no adjacent system that will absorb the call volume. There's simply no response.”

Nikaya Nudel (Executive Director, Northeast Colorado Regional EMS and Trauma Advisory Council) · witness — Captures the stakes driving the essential-service designation for frontier communities where EMS is the only round-the-clock point of access to care.

+ 5 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction
Yes (9)Brandi Bradley, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Karen McCormick, Gretchen Rydin, Katie Stewart, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist
No (3)Mary Bradfield, Dusty Johnson, Dan Woog
Excused (1)Carlos Barron
Referred to Committee of the WholeAction
Yes (13)Carlos Barron, Mary Bradfield, Brandi Bradley, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Dusty Johnson, Karen McCormick, Gretchen Rydin, Katie Stewart, Dan Woog, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist, Eliza Hamrick
Referred to Committee of the WholeAction
Yes (13)Carlos Barron, Mary Bradfield, Brandi Bradley, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Dusty Johnson, Karen McCormick, Gretchen Rydin, Katie Stewart, Dan Woog, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist
Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction
Yes (10)Mary Bradfield, Brandi Bradley, Regina English, Lisa Feret, Eliza Hamrick, Karen McCormick, Gretchen Rydin, Katie Stewart, Sheila Lieder, Lindsay Gilchrist
No (2)Dusty Johnson, Dan Woog
Excused (1)Carlos Barron
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TranscriptPreview
Okay. The Health and Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Shidoun, please call the roll. Representatives of O. Excuse. Bradfield. Here. Bradley. Excused. I think she's working on getting online. Okay. English. Excused. Frey. Here. And Inglis just walked in. Representative English just joined us. Amrick. Here. Johnson. Here. McCormick. Here. Ryden. Excused. Stewart. Here. Woog. Here. Leader. Present. Madam Chair. Present. Wonderful. Well, thank you sponsors for being so prompt. Today we're going to hear how House Bill 1238, 1194, 1277 and 1280. Each witness will have three minutes to testify and we'll have 10 minute panels and we have our 1238 bill sponsors here. So go ahead and get started. Representative Johnson thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you colleagues. Proud to introduce to you all House Bill 261238 to designate our emergency medical services as essential service. This bill is not symbolic. It is long overdue. It's practical and urgent. When Coloradans call 911 for any medical issue such as a heart attack, stroke, overdose, EMS is the front door of care. They are the first ones so they can get them into the rest of the healthcare system. Paramedics and EMTs deliver immediate time sensitive…
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