Two bills recently passed in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, aimed at enhancing health care services in rural Colorado. These bills, sponsored by Representative Meghan Lukens, seek to allocate funding towards training, recruiting and expanding Colorado’s health care workforce. Additionally, the bills aim to support rural hospitals and promote mental health care in rural communities.
Representative Lukens, from Steamboat Springs, emphasized the importance of providing quality health care services to residents of rural communities like hers. She expressed pride in championing these bills at the Capitol, recognizing the significance of ensuring access to health care in every part of the state.
One of the bills, SB24-221, co-sponsored by Rep. Marc Caitlin focuses on expanding the Colorado Rural Health Care Workforce Initiative to attract more health care professionals to rural areas. The bill allocates over $1.7 million to rural hospitals and higher education institutions to establish or expand rural health care track programs. Another bill, SB24-055 sponsored by Rep. Anthony Hartsook aims to provide better access to behavioral health care in rural Colorado through the Agricultural and Rural Community Behavioral Health program.
This program will collaborate with the Colorado Department of Agriculture and health care providers to connect farmers, ranchers and their families with behavioral health services. Additionally, SB24-055 will create a working group within the Department of Agriculture
