The document lists upcoming community events in Trinidad, Colorado for March 31 through mid-April, including meetings, art exhibits, workshops, blood drives, and volunteer opportunities. It also provides the daily weather forecast and river flow information. Contact information is provided for each event.

1. 50Cents
trinidad
Colorado
~
Vol. 138, No. 64
Monday
MarCh31,2014
MARCH 31
~Community Chorale
MONDAY (6:15 p.m.) Rehearsals for the
annual Spring Concert under the direction
of Jireh Thomas are being held at the First
United Methodist Church, 216 Broom St.
Information: 719-846-3720. New members
always welcome, no auditions necessary.
~TMS Parent Pride
MONDAY (6:30 p.m.) The Trinidad
Middle School Parent Pride organization will
meet in the TMS Library. Information: 719-
846-4411.
Today’s Quote
“You can’t trust a man who
doesn’t love horses.”
- Will Rogers
APRIL 1
~Las Animas County
TUESDAY (9 a.m.) Board of County
Commissioners meeting is in the Las Ani-
mas Courthouse, 200 E. First St., Room 201.
Information: 719-845-2568. COUNTY COM-
MISSIONERS: Gary Hill (719-845-2595),
Mack Louden (719-845-2592), and Anthony
Abeyta (719-846-9300).
~Art Exhibits Due
TUESDAY & WEDNESDAY (10 a.m. –
5 p.m.) Submissions will be due for the 13th
Annual TALAS Art Show at the Corazon Gal-
lery, 149 E. Main St. Information: Lora Nava,
719-680-8596.
~ArtoCade 2014 Workshop
TUESDAY (6-8 p.m.) A fun program for
anyone interested in “How to Make an Artcar
or Kooky Conveyance” will be held at 149
E. Main St. (next to the Corazon Gallery). In-
formation: Rodney Wood, 719-334-0087 or
artcarfun@yahoo.com.
~Trinidad City Council
TUESDAY (7 p.m.) Regular session,
Council Chambers, City Hall, 135 N. Animas
St. Information: Audra Garrett, 719-846-
9843.
PUBLIC SERVICE
~TDOG Park Organizers
WEDNESDAY (6:30 p.m.) The Trinidad
Dog Owners Group meeting will be at the
Trinidad Community Center, 1309 Beshoar
Drive. Information: Mary Rogers, 719-846-
6030.
~Peacock Ball
SATURDAY (5 p.m.-Midnight) Join in
the 11th Annual Peacock Ball to be held at
the Sebastiani Gym on Animas St. Informa-
tion: Lucky’s Fetching Finds, 719-846-8578.
All proceeds benefit Noah’s Ark.
~Community Blood Drive
APRIL 11 (Noon-4 p.m.) Help save a
life! Bonfils Blood Drive will be held in the
Pioneer Room at Trinidad State Junior Col-
lege. Sign-up and information: Bonfils Ap-
pointment Center, 800-365-0006 or www.
bonfils.org.
~Calling all Choir Members
APRIL 19 (3 p.m.) Anyone interested
in participating in our “Singspiration” for
Easter is welcome to join us at the Trinidad
Seventh-Day Adventist Church, corner of Ai-
ello and Strong Streets. Information: Lauryce
Hecker, 970-901-2054.
~CRCC Scholarships
AVAILABLE NOW: Culebra Range
Community Coalition environmental scholar-
ships are available for graduating senior ma-
joring in any field that will benefit the environ-
ment. Contact: Tom Perry at 719-846-8380.
~Vonna Parsons Scholarship
APRIL 12 DEADLINE: Scholarships
available to high school seniors in the Stone-
wall Fire Protection District. Information:
Charlie Hislop, 719-868-3660.
~Raton PBW Scholarship
MAY 7 DEADLINE: A $500 scholarship
for continuing education is available to any
student or person in the work force in Colfax
County. Information: Diane Dixon, 575-445-
2713.
~Calling all History Lovers
MAY-SEPTEMBER: Anyone interested
in volunteering for summer service at the
Santa Fe Trail Museum please contact Paula
Manini at 719-846-7217. It’s a great place
to spend a few hours greeting visitors with
some hometown hospitality.
~ArtoCade 2014
CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS: Anyone
interested in participating in the Cardango
Gala and all other events before and during
the annual ArtoCade Festival please contact
Rodney Wood at 719-334-0087 or artcar-
fun@yahoo.com.
~SUICIDE/CRISIS HOTLINES:
*ADULT HOPE: 800-784-2433
*TEEN: 877-968-8454
*GLB-YOUTH: 866-488-7386
*VET-2-VET: 877-838-2838
“When the world says, ‘Give up!’ Hope
says, ‘Not today!” ~Unknown
~ ABUSE HOTLINES:
*Domestic Abuse Hotline: In Trinidad
call 719-846-6665 (24-hours a day). National
Hotline call: 1-800-790-SAFE (7233).
*Animal Abuse: Do your part and help
put a stop to animal cruelty. Report animal
abuse and dog/cock fighting at Crime Stop-
pers anonymous tip line: 720-913-7867.
theFinePrint
WeatherWatChMonday: Mostly sunny, with a high near
61. Breezy, with a W-NW wind 20 to 25 mph
decreasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon.
Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. Night:
Partly cloudy, with a low around 31. Light and
variable wind becoming S-SW 5 to 10 mph after
midnight.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near
63. Windy, with a S-SW wind 10 to 20 mph
increasing to 20 to 30 mph in the afternoon.
Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. Night:
Partly cloudy, with a low around 35. Windy, with
a W-SW wind 20 to 30 mph decreasing to 10
to 20 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as
high as 40 mph.
Wednesday: Partly sunny, with a high near
60. W-SW wind 10 to 15 mph. Night: A chance
of rain and snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low
around 33. W-SW wind 10 to 15 mph becom-
ing north after midnight. Chance of precipitation
is 30%.
Thursday: A chance of rain and snow.
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 49. North wind
10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
riverCallPurgatoire River Call as of
03/28/2014. Johns Flood ditch:
Priority #5 -- Appropriation date:
03/20/1862.
Trinidad Reservoir Accounting:
Release 0..42 AF
Inflow 31.87 AF -- 16.07 CFS
Evaporation 11.45 AF
Content 17,996 AF
Elevation 6,180.79
Precipitation 0
Downstream River Call:
Ninemile Canal: 05/10/1887.
theChroniCleneWsANNUAL CHARITY FUNDRAISER
Women’s Exchange luncheon set to help
community, provide laughs on April 12
By Bruce Leonard
It’s one thing for people to get
together to have a good time, and
yet quite another for them to get
together to do good. The Women’s
Exchange, however, has success-
fully blended these two objectives,
and women in the community are
invited to attend the charitable or-
ganization’s annual Women’s Ex-
change luncheon, called Venture
Voila!, which will be held from 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, April
12 at Brix Sports Bar & Grill. The
deadline to purchase the $45 tick-
ets is April 4, and the women who
choose to attend this gala event
will almost certainly enjoy them-
selves while raising funds to ben-
efit worthy organizations.
The Women’s Exchange was
founded in 2005 by Kathy Top-
ping and Karen Malone, and this
non-profit has raised funds for nu-
merous organizations in the area,
including the Harry Sayre Senior
Center, Advocates Against Do-
mestic Assault, Hope Pregnancy
Center, the Fisher’s Peak Soup
Kitchen and the Women, Infants
and Children Program. The group
also annually presents two $1,000
scholarships to non-traditional
female Trinidad State Junior Col-
lege students, one in an academic
program and one in a technical
program.
The 120 women who attended
last year’s Women’s Exchange
luncheon helped to raise $8,500,
more than half of which went to
the Mt. Carmel Center’s summer-
lunch program.
Speaking of 2014’s projected at-
tendance, Topping said, “We’re
hoping for 150 this year.”
“We’ve outgrown all of the ven-
ues we’ve had, so we’re onto a new
one,” said Addi Segers about this
year’s host location, Brix. Segers
is one of the dynamic women who
work for six months to put on this
annual event, and any women who
have attended a previous Wom-
en’s Exchange luncheon know
that the organizers put a premium
on quality.
Keynote speaker Kay Evans,
who is the director of massage
therapy and holistic health at
TSJC, will address the gathered
women, who will be served a
morning snack, beverages and a
sit-down lunch. Martha Fitzgerald
will teach the women “how to dec-
orate a room,” and Grace Filkins
will speak about how best to evac-
uate, should that need arise. Chris
Huffman will present a “Jewelry
Blitz,” and Bree Pappan of Vintage
Treasures will present a fashion
show. DJ Stephanie Garcia will
entertain the crowd, and Segers
said, “It’s a fun day. We have crazy
music.”
In addition to listening to tunes,
each attendee will receive a goody
bag filled with special treats and
will be able to experience “Des-
serts from Around the World.”
About 30 items will be included
in a silent auction, which will fea-
ture anything “from art to wine to
spa baskets,” said Topping. The
Women’s Exchange is still accept-
ing donations for items for its si-
lent auction, which will feature
products, services and amenities
worth more than $25, and a raffle
will also be held that will give
away numerous items worth less
than $25.
The three 2014 Venture Voila!
beneficiaries are the Trinidad
Community Chorale, the Trinidad
Area Arts Council’s Children’s
Art Program and the Carnegie
Public Library’s Summer Read-
ing Program. These three entities
were selected by the Women’s
Exchange from among the nine
beneficiaries that applied, and the
funds that Venture Voila! raises
will be divided equally among the
three beneficiaries.
Businesses that would like to
sponsor tables may still do so for a
fee of $125.
Last year’s beneficiaries will
address the attendees, and this
year’s beneficiaries have been en-
couraged to do so.
The event will “honor the wom-
en who have passion,” accord-
ing to Topping, who added that
the more the community utilizes
the worthy organizations around
town — the kind of entities that
are the beneficiaries of the Wom-
en’s Exchange’s largess — “the
more important they become.”
“Things are being done,” said
Segers. “There’s no lack of busi-
ness people wanting to see some-
thing happen.”
And many of those female
business people will soon attend
Venture Voila! on April 12. People
who want to purchase a table or
to contribute to the silent auction
or the raffle should contact Kathy
Topping at 719-680-9509, as should
women who would like to attend
the event. More information about
the Women’s Exchange is avail-
able at
Photo courtesy of the Women’s Exchange
From left to right in the front row are Karen Jo Agnello, Sally VanLanen, Kathy Topping, Karen Malone, and in the back
row, left to right, are Bree Pappan, Peggy WestMoreland, a TAAC beneficiary, Chris Huffman and Addi Segers, all of
whom will participate in this year’s Women’s Exchange luncheon.
OUTDOORS
TSJC’s Prator Shooting
Range welcomes community
to Grand Reopening
By Steve Block
Offering gun enthusiasts a
commanding view of Colorado’s
Eastern Plains, the Prator Shoot-
ing Range, which sits southeast
of Trinidad, now offers a fully
equipped trap and skeet shooting
range. Trinidad State Junior Col-
lege will host a Grand Reopening
from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday,
April 5 to highlight the range’s re-
cent improvements, which were
made possible by grants and dona-
tions.
Trap and skeet shooting are
both shotgun sports that were de-
veloped by bird hunters who want-
ed to practice their skills. Shooters
try to hit a spinning clay disk, or
clay pigeon, that’s mechanically
launched into the air. In trap
shooting the disk is launched in
front of and away from the shoot-
er, while in skeet shooting the
disks are launched from the right
and left and sometimes fly almost
directly over the shooter’s head.
TSJC began planning for a trap
and skeet course at the 23-acre
range in 2011, and trap shooting
began in 2012. When the concrete
was poured for the trap course, the
skeet course’s distinctive spokes
and half circle were included to
save money later on. In recent
months, a “high house” and “low
house” were added and launch-
ers installed, along with lights for
night trap and skeet shooting.
A ribbon cutting is scheduled
for 11:30 a.m., followed by a dem-
onstration of trap and skeet shoot-
ing by the new Trinidad State
Clays Shooting Team. Following
that, members of the public will
get the chance to blast some clay
pigeons out of the sky. Shoot-
ing team members will provide
safety training and coaching, and
the Trinidad State Gun Club will
supply shotguns. Attendees can
pay $13 for 25 clay pigeons and 25
shotgun shells, then can go ahead
and blast away. Free hot dogs will
be available, and soft drinks and
chips can be purchased, with the
proceeds going to benefit the Gun
Club.
The Trinidad State Educational
Foundation owns the facility and
provides it with much of its finan-
cial support, while the Gun Club
Steve Block / The Chronicle-News
Shooting Sports Director Dan Croghan, above, opens the gates of the Prator
Shooting Range, which will host a Grand Reopening on Saturday. At left, a
shooter takes aim as the sun sets. (Photo courtesy of Greg Boyce.)
Continued on Page 2 ...

2. Page 2 Monday, March 31, 2014 The Chronicle-News Trinidad, Colorado
General Manager
Allyson Sheumaker
asheumaker@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Advertising
Sales-Adam Sperandio
advertising@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Classified- Kyla Clark
classified@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Design & Legals- Krysta Toci
ktoci@trinidadchroniclenews.com
News Room
Editor: Bruce Leonard
editor@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Features Editor & Fine Print
Catherine Moser
cathy@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Reporter: Steve Block
news1@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Circulation: Kaylee Reorda
circulation@trinidadchroniclenews.com
Business Hours:
Monday - Friday
8 AM - 5 PM
USPS #110-040
200 West Church Street
P.O. Box 763, Trinidad, CO 81082
Member: Associated Press, Colorado Press Association
Periodicals Postage Paid For At Trinidad, CO.
Published Monday - Friday
w w w.thechronicle-news.com
Subscription Rates
Effective Aug. 1, 2013
Home Delivery Trinidad
1 Month ................$7.00
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JENNIE MARIE SANCHEZ
runs the operations.
The Educational Foun-
dation recently installed
a 1,500 square-foot, three
bedroom, two-bath modular
home, and a fulltime range
director, Dan Croghan, has
been hired. Croghan is also
a student in TSJC’s Gun-
smithing Program.
The Prator Shooting
Range also features a rifle
and pistol range with dis-
tancesupto100yards.Many
local law enforcement of-
ficers keep their shooting
skills sharp by practicing
there. The 100-yard range
has four lanes, with eight
lanes at 80 yards. The pistol
range has movable targets
for various distances. The
rifle and pistol range will
be unavailable for shooting
during the Grand Reopen-
ing.
The shooting range is
also a place where 4-H and
other youth groups can
learn how to use firearms
safely. Gun clubs in the area
can also utilize the range
for shooting practices and
events.
The shooting range was
originally built back in 1976
and named for Bill Prator,
the founder of the TSJC
Gunsmithing School. Once
a prime local attraction, the
range had fallen into disre-
pair in recent years, how-
ever.
Last year marked the
65th Anniversary of TSJC’s
Gunsmithing School, and
the improvements to the
shooting range were a fea-
tured part of the anniver-
sary celebration. The club-
house is being remodeled
and features an indoor bath-
room, shower and class-
room space.
Croghan moved here
with his wife two years ago
from Portland, Ore. and
said they’re both enjoying
the wonderful Colorado
sunshine.
“We want to get people
out here,” Croghan said.
“We want the community
to be involved in it. We just
built some new things at the
rifle range, including 25-
and 50-yard berms. We’re
redoing the clubhouse with
new paint and flooring, so
that it looks a little better
and we can have gun-safety
and concealed-carry classes
out here. We’ll have some
law-enforcement officers
out here next weekend get-
ting their shooting quali-
fications. I would also like
to get some rifle programs
going out here. My phone
number is 719-680-7236, so if
anyone wants to come out
and shoot, just give me a
call.”
Shooting can be a fun
and rewarding experience
for people of all ages, and
the Prator Shooting Range
is open to the public for a
nominal fee, with annual
memberships available.
Currently, the range is open
from noon until 5 p.m. and
again from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
on Mondays, Thursdays
and Fridays, and from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays
and Sundays. It’s closed on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
People can easily get to
the range from downtown
Trinidad. From East Main
Street, they should turn
south onto Grey Creek
Road, which is also County
Road 24.6, then travel for six
and a half miles.
Prator Gun Range grand reopening
... Continued from Page 1
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March 25, 2014
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theGoodolddAys
By Don Kingery
Special to The Chronicle-News
Jelly has been around, it seems,
forever. Peanut butter was invented
in 1890. The first bread-slicer wasn’t
invented until 1928. So nobody
knows when the first kid ate the
first peanut-butter-and-jelly sand-
wich.
Whenever it happened, it really
started something.
The National Peanut Board
claims that an average kid eats 1,500
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches
before she or he graduates from
high school.
It’s called a peanut-butter-and-
jelly sandwich in America, and a
peanut-butter-and-jam sandwich
in England, Canada and Australia.
Either way, it’s easy to make. Any
child knows how to use a table knife
to spread peanut butter on a slice of
bread, then use a spoon to cover the
peanut butter with jelly. A second
slice of bread on top, and the sand-
wich is done.
A peanut-butter-and-jelly sand-
wich travels well because it has no
perishable ingredients. It’s a stan-
dard item in paper-bag lunches.
Companies have made “butter”
from various nuts such as almond,
cashew, soybean, sunflower or ha-
zelnut, but nothing has tasted better
than peanut butter.
Other ingredients have also
been tried in place of jelly. Honey,
syrup, marshmallows, raisins,
bananas, creamery butter, marsh-
mallow fluff and different kinds of
dried fruit have been tried. Peanut
butter seems to go
fairly well with ripe
bananas or honey,
but there’s more
conversation about
the kind of jelly
that goes best with
peanut butter than
there has been about
the use of other in-
gredients.
There have been
attempts to find a
nickname for pea-
nut-butter-and-jelly
sandwiches, the way
that “BLT” means a
bacon-lettuce-toma-
to sandwich. Pea-
nut-butter-and-jelly
sandwiches have
been called PB&J,
Peanut Butter and
J, and even Blood
and Mud, the latter
name dreamed up
in Canada. No nick-
names caught on. A peanut-butter-
and-jelly sandwich is still called a
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.
Attempts to capitalize on the
name peanut butter and jelly have
not been successful. In the TV se-
ries “Seinfeld,” in an episode titled,
“The Friar’s Club,” Kramer came
up with the idea for a restaurant
called PB&J’s, which would only
serve peanut-butter-and-jelly sand-
wiches. In 1998, a restaurant named
Peanut Butter & Co. opened in New
York City. A cafe named PB&J’s
opened in a Boston food court in
2005. During his presidential cam-
paign in 2000, President George W.
Bush, then a candidate, appeared
on the Oprah Winfrey Show and
said his favorite sandwich is peanut
butter and jelly on white bread.
It was inevitable that someone
would decide to grind up peanuts.
In 1890, a food-products company
made ground-peanut paste as a pro-
tein substitute for people with bad
teeth who couldn’t chew meat. But
it was 1908 before an Ohio company
called Krema Products of Ohio be-
gan selling peanut butter to the pub-
lic. Krema is still in operation.
Swift & Company started E.K.
Pond peanut butter, then renamed
it Peter Pan in 1928. In 1955, Procter
& Gamble entered the peanut-butter
business. They introduced Jiff in
1958 and now operate the world’s
largest peanut-butter plant, produc-
ing 250,000 jars a day.
There’s no sign that anything
will be found to replace peanut-but-
ter-and-jelly sandwiches. As long as
it’s so easy a child can do it, nobody
is going to try to change it.
Write Don Kingery, c/o American
Press , Box 2893, Lake Charles, LA
70602, or e-mail dkingery@ameri-
canpress.com.
Peanut Butter & Jelly —
A sandwich for the ages
Rural residents
confront higher
health care costs
By KRISTEN WYATT
Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — Bill Fales want-
ed a new baler and a better irrigation
system for the 700-acre ranch where
he raises grass-fed beef cattle, but he
scrapped those plans when he saw
his new health insurance premiums.
His Cold Mountain Ranch is in
western Colorado’s Rocky Moun-
tains, a rural area where outpatient
services are twice as expensive as
the state average. Fales recently saw
his monthly premiums jump 50 per-
cent, to about $1,800 a month.
Health care has always been more
expensive in far-flung communi-
ties, where actuarial insurance data
show fewer doctors, specialists and
hospitals, as well as older residents
in need of more health care services.
But the rural-urban cost divide has
been exacerbated by the Affordable
Care Act.
“We’ve gone from letting the
insurance companies use a pre-
existing medical condition to jack
up rates to having a pre-existing zip
code being the reason health insur-
ance is unaffordable,” Fales said.
“It’s just wrong.”
Geography is one of only three de-
terminants insurance companies are
allowed to use to set premiums un-
der the federal health care law, along
with age and tobacco use. Insurance
officials say they need such controls
to remain viable.
“If premiums are not allowed
to keep up with underlying medi-
cal costs, no company is going to
survive,” said Robert Zirkelbach, a
spokesman with America’s Health
Insurance Plans, a Washington, D.C.-
based industry group.
The nonpartisan Kaiser Family
Foundation recently rated the Colo-
rado region where Fales lives as the
nation’s priciest, based on rates for
the lowest-priced “silver” plan, a
mid-level policy. In this part of the
state, a region that includes Aspen,
the cheapest mid-level plan is $483 a
month. In Denver, the same plan is
about $280 a month.
Other insurance price zones on
the most-expensive list include rural
areas in Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin
and Wyoming. But the cost differ-
ences between densely and sparsely
populated areas shouldn’t come as a
shock, Zirkelbach said, because it’s
simply more expensive to deliver
care in such communities.
“That’s not new at all. Health
insurance premiums track the un-
derlying cost of medical care. This
was true before the ACA, and it’s
true now,” he said. “Hopefully, the
exchanges will shine a spotlight on
the variances that exist in the cost of
medical care.”
States have only one option to re-
duce the premium divide between
their urban and rural areas. They
can set a single statewide rating
zone, an option that would reduce
premiums for those in rural areas by
shifting costs onto more-populated
regions.
It’s something officials in all but
the smallest states are reluctant to
do. Only six states — Delaware, Ha-
waii, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Rhode Island and Vermont — chose
a single rating zone, in addition to
Washington, D.C., according to the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
“There’s always been geographic
variance in insurance,” said Craig
Garthwaite, an economist at North-
western University’s Kellogg School
of Management who has studied the
economic consequences of the new
health care law.
The difference now, he said, is
insurers have fewer levers to ad-
just premium pricing. Garthwaite
also said the health care law makes
it easier for rural health insurance
shoppers to see what city residents
are paying.
“That’s forcing them to confront
the market, which is a new thing,”
he said.
It’s a bumpy confrontation for
many in rural areas who earn too
much to qualify for premium subsi-
dies but not enough to easily afford
premiums that can approach or ex-
ceed $1,000 a month.
“I have people mad enough to
bite a nail in half down here, saying,
‘Why are my prices so high?’” said
David Hardin, an insurance broker
in the southwest Georgia commu-
nity of Albany, in another of the na-
tion’s priciest private health insur-
ance zones.
“Either they’re mad as all get-
out, or I can hear them crying on the
phone. It just breaks your heart,”
said Hardin, whose customers are
seeing monthly premiums that cost
at least $500 a month more than if
they’d lived in Atlanta. “I think there
was the idea that it might reduce
costs, and now they’re seeing that
it’s not.”
Some are even considering mov-
ing to avoid the premium increases.
In Gardnerville, Nev., about 50
miles south of Reno, freelance writer
Tim Plaehn is considering moving
to Uruguay, where he and his wife
lived for a time and still have friends.
Plaehn pays about $400 a month
in premiums but expects his tab to
rise above $1,000 when his current
plan expires. He makes too much to
qualify for insurance subsidies but
isn’t sure he can afford the jump.
“I’m hoping something will
change in the law to make it more
affordable, because otherwise, some-
thing’s going to break,” he said.
Some premiums in Las Vegas are
about $600 a month cheaper, but he
said he doesn’t want to live there.
Colorado Insurance Commission-
er Marguerite Salazar has traveled
to several rural regions to explain
the rates to angry customers.
At the meetings, state insurance
officials pass out the actuarial data
behind the premiums, including
details from Colorado’s All Payer
Claims Database, which lists hos-
pitalization rates and other factors
used to determine the cost of health
care in a region.
Salazar then walks residents
through the differences and says
that state officials cannot lower rural
rates without driving insurers out of
the market.
“They’ve got to have rates that
will allow them to pay the doctors,”
Salazar said at a November meeting
in Greeley, a northeastern Colorado
town where rates are higher than
Denver.
Salazar recently announced a
task force to review the rating zones,
but added in a public statement that
any changes would have to be based
on new data.
Her spokesman, Vincent Plymell,
said there is nothing state regulators
can do. There are no easy short-term
fixes to reduce costs in rural areas,
where everything from MRIs to baby
deliveries costs more, he said.
“Costs are higher like they are for
housing or food or everything else.
Health care costs aren’t something
we have the ability to control,” Plym-
ell said. “It’s easy to kind of point the
finger and say it’s the big, bad insur-
ance companies, but it’s a lot more
complicated than that.”
For now, health advocates in ru-
ral Colorado say they have few an-
swers for patients who want to buy
insurance, but simply can’t afford it
because of where they live.
“People really see the value of in-
surance up here, and they’re mysti-
fied about why our premiums are so
much higher,” said Tamara Drangst-
veit, executive director of the Family
and Intercultural Resource Center
in Frisco, Colo., about 25 miles east
of Vail in the heart of the state’s ski
country.
“They want insurance,” Drangst-
veit said. “They don’t want to break
the law and get a fine, but they live
in a certain area and they have no
choice.”
“Come, ye
disconsolate,
where’er you
languish,
Come at the
shrine of
God fervently
kneel;
Here bring
your wounded
hearts, here
tell your
anguish –
Earth has
no sorrow
that Heaven
cannot heal.”
~Thomas Moore