Dylan Roberts

Throughout Roberts’s legislative career he has been the prime sponsor of 45 bills that have been signed into law. Some of the most notable bills amongst those include: HB19-1216, HB19-1004, HB19-1207, HB19-1077, and HB18-1286.[3]

HB19-1216 was passed in 2019 led by Roberts with bipartisan sponsorship from state senators Kerry Donovan and Kevin Priola[4]. Representative Roberts' passion for this bill was sparked by his late brother Murphy; Murphy was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes so Representative Roberts saw first hand the impact of high insulin prices[5]. The bill caps insulin prices at $100 co-pays each month becoming the first state in the United States to cap insulin prices. Prior to the passing of this bill, it was said 1 in 4 diabetics were rationing their insulin due to rising drug prices. Roberts said in a statement, “In a first world country, we shouldn’t have people rationing insulin just because they can’t afford it”(1). The bill was passed and signed into law by Governor Jared Polis and was enacted January 1, 2020.  Many state legislators have now followed suit in the passing of bills similar to this one. For example, Illions passed a similar bill and lawmakers in other states have put similar bills on their agendas including California, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.[6]

HB19-1004 directed state insurance regulators to draft a proposal for a state option insurance plan that was then outlined as the Colorado Affordable Health Care Option in a new bill, HB20-1349, during the 2020 legislative session. Representative Roberts and the other bipartisan bill sponsors of HB19-1004 paved the way for legislators to hold vital stakeholder meetings across the state and conduct deep research into how to best construct a public option plan that will be successful in Colorado’s healthcare landscape.  Colorado stands apart from the rest of the nation with a plan to implement a public option plan at the state level. To reach that goal, lawmakers began with the passing of HB19-1004 in 2019, which set forth to provide a proposal for an affordable health care option to Colorado residents. Colorado stands out across the nation as one of the states with the highest hospital costs. On the national scale Colorado hospitals are 14% higher than the rest of the nation. A study released by the Colorado Business Group on Health, showed that Denver-area hospitals collectively made more than $2 billion in profits in 2018.(2) Because of this action taken in 2019, it has now created traction for another public option bill set to be introduced in the 2020 legislative session.[7]

This bill, in turn, led to the HB20-1349, the Colorado Affordable Health Care Option which was introduced on March 5th, 2020, and passed its first committee hearing in the House Committee on Health & Insurance with a 7-4 vote. Due to the current recess in Colorado’s 2020 legislative session, this bill’s progress is currently on hold.[7]

During the 2019 legislative session, Roberts led an effort with bipartisan sponsorship from state senators Kerry Donovan and Bob Rankin to pass HB19-1207 which requires Colorado motorists to prepare their vehicles for snowy conditions. This bill set a minimum standard for tires as well as requiring transaction equipment to be carried on I-70 between milepoint 133 and milepoint 256. In the past, multi-vehicle crashes have closed down roads near the Eisenhower Tunnel after heavy snowfall. This protects drivers in some places with snow projected up to 18 inches. This bill has paved the way to reduce accidents caused by unprepared drives as well as minimizes traffic due to accidents.[8]

Roberts worked alongside state senators Jack Tate and Brittany Pettersen to pass HB19-1077, which allows a pharmacist to dispense medication without a prescription in an emergency situation. The law, also known as Kevin’s Law, is named after Kevin Houdeshell, an Ohio man who died in 2014 after a pharmacy wouldn't refill his past prescription for insulin while his doctor was off for the holidays. Roberts stated, “Sometimes you forget that your prescription is about to run out, or you realize your prescription is about to run out and you start rationing your medicine which are both really not good outcomes for your long-term health”.[9]

Roberts worked with state senators Irene Aguilar and Vicki Marble to pass HB18-1286, which allows school nurses to give a student with a medical marijuana registry card their medical marijuana prescription.[10] The bill is also cited as Quintin’s Amendments after Quintin Lovato, a 4th grader who used medical marijuana to treat his seizures and Tourettes. Quintin needed his medication 3 times a day, one of those when he was at school. This bill gave light to many students who use medical marijuana as a treatment for their conditions to be able to obtain their prescription while at school.[11]