Senate Health & Human Services

Thursday, January 29, 2026·2h 12m·▶ Watch / Listen

Key Actions

·SB26-017 – Out-of-Network Health Insurance Dispute ResolutionPassed

+ 3 more actions

Controversies

Constitutional validity of SB26-032's liability shield provisions

Melissa Ashley argued that Article 2, Section 6 of the Colorado Constitution requires courts to be open to every person for injury remedies, and that while the federal program provides a quid pro quo alternative avenue, the state bill simply shields liability without providing any alternative, making it unconstitutional. Senator Carson responded that he was not sure the state and federal liability laws could be harmonized and stated he would seek a legal opinion, while bill sponsors maintained the law preserves accountability for fraud, negligence, or misconduct.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“L3 to Senate Bill 32. Tell us about L3. This amendment is a clarifying amendment that the board, for rulemaking purposes only, needs to take place for vaccine record keeping, not all vaccine rulemaking, which already took place last November. As for an I vote, Any questions about amendment L3? Any opposition to L3? Seeing none. Amendment L3 is passed. Are there any more amendments? Members, do we have any amendments? Seeing none. The amendment phase is closed. Wrap”
Senator Daugherty — Senator Daugherty made this statement during her wrap-up on SB26-032, arguing that vaccine providers face an increasingly hostile legal environment and need the stability the bill's liability protections would provide.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Move Senate Bill 17 as amended to the Committee on Appropriations with a favorable recommendationPassed

Yes (9)Bright, Carson, Cutter, Doherty, Frizell, Jodeh, Weissman, Michaelson Janay, Malka

Move Senate Bill 32 as amended to the committee of the whole with a favorable recommendationPassed

Yes (5)Cutter, Jordy, Jodeh, Weissman, Michael Zendrane

No (3)Bright, Carson, Frizell

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TranscriptPreview

Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Senate Health and Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators Bright, good afternoon. Carson. President. Cutter. Present. Doherty. Here. Frizzell. Excused. Judah. Present. Weissman. Good afternoon. Michaelson. Janae. Present. Mr. Chair. Malika. Here. Members, we're going to go out of order a little bit. We're going to HEAR Senate Bill 17 first with Senator Daugherty and Senator Bright. Senator Daugherty, thank you, Mr. Chair and Committee. I'm excited to be bringing you the first bill this year. A little history. This is the third time we've been trying to solve this problem. We have had, I think, a lot of really successful conversations in the interim leading up to this point, and I am proud to say we have, I think, come to a Kumbaya moment on this bill. So here we are. Just a little bit about this bill. We're talking about out of network billing. And this issue occurs most frequently in emergency departments. So you will also be hearing from several emergency medicine physicians today about this particular issue. Physicians are committed to providing emergency care and ensuring patients are treated even when an…

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