AARP Colorado 2023 Legislative Wrap-up

Introduction

This year, the Colorado Legislature was in session Jan. 9-May 8. During that time, legislators, lobbyists, advocates, and stakeholders were hard at work. This legislative session, AARP Colorado monitored 79 bills at the Colorado State Capitol. These bills encompassed a range of issues related to health security, financial resilience, and age-friendly communities. Legislation included issues as diverse as food accessibility, utility regulation, tax credits, medical coverage, guardianship, pharmacy services, employment discrimination, and PERA defined benefits. AARP Colorado monitors a wide range of issues because we represent the needs of about
670,000 Colorado members. Our goal is to make tangible, positive impacts on the lives of 50+ Coloradans across the state.

Legislation

AARP strongly prioritized the support of nine bills during the 2023 legislative session, while strongly opposing one bill. When bills are prioritized, AARP Colorado works diligently on lobbying efforts and advocacy mobilization. Our members routinely testified before legislative committees and met with elected officials to influence policy outcomes and to share and educate on the perspectives of our community.

Senate Bill 23-058: Job Application Fairness Act
What the bill does: The bill prohibits employers from inquiring about a prospective employee’s age, date of birth, dates of attendance, or graduation date from an educational institution on an initial employment application.

Why we strongly supported it: Unfortunately, employers may seek this information to discriminate against older Coloradans seeking employment. Empowerment is a core value of AARP. We use our influence and resources to remove barriers and open possibilities.

Status: Signed into law June 2, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Senators Jessie Danielson, Sonya Jaquez Lewis, and Representatives Jenny Willford and Mary Young.

House Bill 23-1008: Food Accessibility
What the bill does: The bill allocated funding and
created tax incentives for healthy eating programs,
designed to assist Colorado’s low-income populations. These programs and incentives must focus on improving access to fresh Colorado-grown fruits and vegetables.

Why we strongly supported it: In 2020, across the
country, nearly 9.5 million adults aged 50 or older lacked consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life due to inadequate financial resources.

Status: Signed into law June 2, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Rep. Mike Weissman and Sens. Rhonda Fields and Nick Hinrichsen.

HB 23-1158: Colorado Commodity Supplemental
Food Grant Program
What the bill does: The bill creates the Colorado
commodity supplemental food grant program to
provide grants of money to aid certain county public health agencies, district public health agencies, county departments of human or social services, and food banks in purchasing and distributing food packages to qualifying low-income older Colorado adults.

Why we strongly supported it: Food insecurity has
significant negative impacts on older adults. Older adults who are food insecure are more likely to have limitations on daily activities as well as have conditions like diabetes and depression. For these reasons, food assistance for low-income older adults is essential.

Status: Signed into law June 7, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Reps. Rick Taggart and Jenny Willford and Sen. Kyle Mullica.

HB 23-1218: Health Facility Patient Information
Denied Service
What the bill does: This bill requires that health care
facilities inform patients (as part of the informed consent process) of the services that the health care facility refuses to provide to patients, when the refusal is for nonmedical reasons.

Why we strongly supported it: Some health care
facilities do not provide a full range of health care
services and may prohibit (or significantly restrict) or refuse to provide services such as end of life health care. Health care facilities may also deny or restrict care to stigmatized populations, including LGBTQ patients, for nonmedical reasons. Patients are not always well positioned to understand what treatment options are available to them when health care facilities are not transparent. AARP believes informed consent is critical in providing requisite information to patients, thereby allowing them to make informed decisions about treatment options.

Status: Signed into law May 10, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Reps. Kyle Brown and Brianna
Titone, and Sen. Jaquez Lewis.

SB 23-002: Medicaid Reimbursement for Community Health Services
What the bill does: This bill allows the state of Colorado to seek federal authorization from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, to provide Medicaid reimbursement for community health worker services.

Why we strongly supported it: Community health
workers play a critically important part in informing
communities about services that help prevent the onset or progression of disease, disability, and other health conditions and promote physical, dental, and behavioral health and efficiency.

Status: Signed into law May 10, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Sens. Kyle Mullica, Cleave
Simpson, and Reps. Mary Bradfield and Julie McCluskie.

SB 23-027: Food Pantry Assistance Grant Program
What the bill does: This bill appropriates money from the state’s general fund to the Food Pantry Assistance Grant Program.

Why we strongly supported it: No one should have to choose between life sustaining food and high medical bills or the increasing cost of electricity. Unfortunately, that is the reality for many Coloradans on a fixed income. AARP is committed to supporting the needs of the 50+ community in Colorado no matter their financial resources.

Status: While the bill passed the CO House of
Representatives, it failed in a Senate committee. This effort did not become law. AARP Colorado will continue to advocate for nutritional adequacy for our community.

Prime bill sponsors: Sen. Lisa Cutter and Rep. Tammy Story.

SB 23-056: Compensatory Direct Distribution to PERA
What the bill does: This bill recompensated the
Public Employees’ Retirement Association (PERA) for
the cancellation of a previously direct distribution, by requiring an additional direct distribution to PERA. It also appropriated general funding to PERA, to assist with the solvency of the fund.

Why we strongly supported it: Defined benefit
pensions play an important role in promoting retirement security. A key component of our advocacy agenda is ensuring that Coloradans have financial independence in retirement. This access avoids costly social services to meet basic needs, as Coloradans age and leave the workforce.

Status: Signed into law June 2, 2023.

Prime bill Sponsors: Sen. Chris Kolker and Reps.
Shannon Bird and Ron Weinberg.

SB 23-064: Continue Office of Public Guardianship
What the bill does: : Colorado’s Office of Public
Guardianship serves indigent and incapacitated adults in need of guardianship. A “guardian” is appointed to make decisions about the health and well-being of an individual. Prior to this legislation, the office was only authorized to operate in three of the state’s judicial districts. It was also scheduled to be repealed next year. This bill extends the office indefinitely and implements a timeline, to have the office operating in every judicial district in the state by 2030.

Why we strongly supported it: AARP state offices
play a key role in updating state guardianship statutes. Priorities in this policy area include safeguarding rights of individuals under guardianship, promoting guardianship as a last resort, promoting less restrictive options, increasing training of all guardians, addressing abuse, and improving court monitoring. Guardianship is an important issue to AARP because it is imperative to advocate for basic due process rights for all adults in guardianship proceedings.

Prime bill sponsors: Sens. Bob Gardner, Joann Ginal,
and Reps. Ryan Armagost and Marc Snyder.

SB 23-291: Utility Regulation
What the bill does: This bill enacted a range of statutory revisions regarding the Public Utilities Commission’s (PUC) regulation of energy utilities, including establishing rules to limit the amount of rate case expenses that are recovered at the expense of the utility’s customers. It also prohibits passing along various costs to its customers, including tax penalties, lobbying and other activities that customers should not bear the financial burdens. The 21- page bill included numerous other provisions to protect utility customers from undue costs and to help protect customers from the volatility of gas prices.

Why we strongly supported it: Skyrocketing costs for heating and cooling negatively impact older Coloradans. AARP Colorado is committed to advocacy efforts to keep utility bills manageable, while protecting members from spiking costs in the future. Trimming utility spending requests is an ongoing priority of AARP Colorado.

Status: Signed into law May 11, 2023.

Prime bill sponsors: Sens. Lisa Cutter, Steve Fenberg, and Reps. Matthew Martinez and Chris deGruy Kennedy.

Additionally, AARP Colorado strongly opposed and
lobbied against one bill this session:

HB 23-1176: PERA Defined Contribution Plan School Personnel

Why we strongly opposed it: This legislation would
have jeopardized the retirement security of school personnel.

Status: The bill was postponed indefinitely (killed) in
committee on March 15, 2023.

Prime bill sponsor: Rep. Don Wilson.

Thank you to the AARP Legislative Advocacy
Team Volunteers. Thank you to AARP Volunteers who generously donated their time, energy, and expertise in the 2023 legislative session.

Special thanks to Leslie Kalechman for her service as the Committee Chairperson during the 2023 legislative session. Your dedication is greatly appreciated.

Interested in Learning More? Please contact Karen Moldovan, Associate Director of Advocacy, at kmoldovan@aarp.org or call/text Karen at 303-570-5473.