LETTERS

has a need to possess a weapon that can liquefy the organs of a child with the pull of a trigger.

I’ll save you some time: we do not need access to these weapons. ere is absolutely no reason to have unfettered access to these weapons. When the Bill of Rights was rati ed in 1791,

GUEST COLUMN

sponsor of SB154 in 2021, which established a 988 Suicide Prevention Lifeline in Colorado to coincide with the federal launch in July 2022. For these e orts, I had the honor of being named a legislative champion by Mental Health America.

But there is always more to be done in correcting the healthcare gap between mental and physical illnesses. HB231130 is a bill currently gaining traction in our state legislature that is looking to reduce the amount of time between a patient with a serious mental illness (SMIs) being prescribed personalized treatment and when they are able to a ord it and actually begin receiving this form of care. is delay is primarily caused by “step therapy,” which is assault ri es had not yet been developed. I think we can easily assume that our Founding Fathers did not intend for the Second Amendment to be a free pass for untrained, average citizens to access rearms that are solely for the purpose of hunting and slaughtering other human beings, including children.

Voting to pass HB23-1230 and ban assault weapons in Colorado will send a number of crucial messages to Coloradans. It will tell us that our elected a treatment approach used by health plans to keep medication costs low.

When a patient is prescribed a drug by their doctor, their health insurance provider or Medicaid will have them try lower-cost medications rst to determine if they will be e ective at treating the patient’s condition. If those treatments don’t work, the patient can “step up” to the potentially more expensive treatment originally recommended by their doctor. HB1130 recognizes the signi cant harm that a patient may experience as a result of this delay by seeking to limit its use when treating SMIs.

When HB1130 passed the House with an overwhelming majority vote and show of support from lawmakers with 39 representatives signing on as cosponsors, I knew I wanted to do everything in my power to ensure a similar result in the Senate. A rst “step” was signing on as a prime cosponsor. e bill does not eliminate step therapy altogether, as it recognizes that o cials are dedicated to the safety of their citizens. It will also tell us that they hold a great respect for our Founding Fathers, our Constitution, and the Second Amendment — as its original intention was not, in fact, to give citizens the right to weapons of war. And nally, most importantly, it will send the message to those who have survived the abject terror of being targeted by an assault weapon — that they matter, and everything will be done to prevent it from happening insurers need to keep initial costs low to serve a greater number of patients. HB1130 remedies existing step therapy laws to allow patients with SMIs to try only one drug before they will receive insurance coverage for the prescribed drug. again.

Additionally, HB1130 does not lessen step therapy requirements for all Coloradoans with a mental illness, and rather focuses on those with severe mental illnesses that are impacted the most by delays to the most e ective treatments.

As a lifelong advocate for behavioral health being accessible to all who need it, I am proud to be a prime co-sponsor for HB1130. is legislation is a leap forward in recognizing that mental illnesses can be as debilitating as physical illness, and require the same highquality, a ordable, and individualized care as any other health condition.

Chris Kolker is the Colorado State Senator for District 16 in Centennial.

To my fellow Coloradans reading this: get on Twitter, get on social media, and start sending emails to your elected o cials. We deserve better. Let’s show our neighbors in Tennessee who are currently outraged with their lawmakers about inaction on this issue; that we know how to organize and hold lawmakers accountable to protect their constituents.