Public Policy Support
Supporting Public Health Through Policy
Each legislative session, the Adams County Health Department works closely with Colorado legislators to craft bills aimed at improving public health, not only for people in Adams County, but for everyone in the state.
2026 Public Health Legislation
Below are the stances the Adams County Health Department held on various public health initiatives during the 2026 legislative session.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department was watching this bill. It would have added a new fee to wine, beer, and liquor sales. That money would have helped pay for alcohol treatment, recovery, and addiction prevention programs.
The Adams County Health Department supported the idea for two reasons:
- Higher alcohol prices can reduce alcohol use
- Colorado needs more resources to support people dealing with alcohol addiction and overuse
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department is monitoring this bill. It creates rules for autism therapy providers across Colorado, including licensing and payment requirements. The bill also creates new licenses for behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts, the people who provide these therapy services.
The Adams County Health Department is monitoring the bill for the time being because it would require our staff to inspect and license autism therapy facilities, as child care facilities are inspected and licensed.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It would create funding to improve access to child care in Colorado.
The funding would help families pay for child care, create new child care centers, and train child care providers.
Child care costs are one of biggest financial challenges for many Colorado families with children. This bill aims to make child care more available and affordable.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department opposes this bill, but appreciates that bill sponsors accepted the health department’s suggestions to improve it.
This bill would allow people to store temperature-controlled foods, such as meat and dairy products. These foods have a higher risk for foodborne illness and are closely regulated under Colorado law.
The Adams County Health Department believes the bill is well-intended, but could lead to more people getting food poisoning. The bill also does not include extra funding or support for local public health agencies to respond to potential outbreaks.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It requires the state to collect more information about temperature-related illnesses and injuries at work sites, including heat exhaustion and hypothermia.
The bill also requires the state to create a safety policy model for businesses. This policy would provide tools and tips to employers to prevent these illnesses and injuries for people who mainly work outdoors. That includes farm workers, ski instructors, and oil and gas workers.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It provides more funding for several health care programs in Colorado. This includes the reinsurance program, which lowers health insurance costs through Connect for Health Colorado, as well as OmniSalud, which helps people who are undocumented get health coverage.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department was monitoring this bill. The bill would have asked Colorado voters to approve higher fees on alcohol and cannabis products. Money would have been used to build a new state mental health hospital in Aurora and provide some funding for a psychiatric care facility in Mesa County.
The bill was meant to address the growing need for treatment for people with severe mental illness. Right now, Colorado only has one state hospital (located in Pueblo) that can fully care for these patients.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. The bill would have created a fee on large companies with more than 500 workers enrolled in Medicaid, the government health care program. This could include companies like Walmart, Amazon, and Target, among others.
The bill was expected to raise around $100 billion over two to four years. That money would have increased payments to doctors, nurses, and providers to help them continue offering care across the state.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. This bill would have added more protections for people with medical debt.
Under this bill, debt collectors would be unable to take money from a person’s paycheck because of unpaid medical bills. It would have also prevented money from being taken from a person’s back account if they the balance was below $30,000. The bill would have stopped threats to take a person’s property or place liens on property because of medical debt. In addition, hospitals would have had to give people at least 30 days’ notice before selling medical debt to a third-party debt collection company.0
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It focuses on the serious problem of differences in maternal deaths and pregnancy-related health problems. The goal is to improve care and make childbirth safer for everyone.
The bill requires hospitals and other places where people give birth to post information about a mother’s rights during childbirth. This includes being treated with respect, having fair care, having a support person, getting clear communication from health care workers, and learning how to file a complaint if needed.
The bill also makes sure the statewide Maternal Health Task Force includes someone from an area with high maternal health rates and allows the state to collect more information from mothers about their health and safety during childbirth.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It would have added a fee to internet service accounts to fund up to six free mental health or behavioral health therapy sessions for adults. These sessions could also include help for substance use issues. These services would have been available regardless of whether someone has insurance.
This program would have been similar to iMatter, which offers free mental health therapy sessions for children and young people in Colorado.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It would help improve water quality in mobile home parks across Colorado.
The bill gives the state more authority to require park owners to address water quality issues related to taste and odor. Before this bill, the state could only require fixes when water failed health and safety standards, even if residents said they would not drink the water.
Mobile home parks across the state experience water quality problems much more often than other communities. The Adams County Health Department believes this bill is an important step to provider safer and higher-quality water.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It adds a 5% fee to purchases made in online video games, such as Roblox. These purchases are often called “microtransactions”.
The fee is expected to raise $20 million per year. This money will help fund programs that support kids’ mental health and social well-being. These programs include iMatter, a peer navigator program that provides therapy to help youth develop problem-solving skills. It also supports crisis response programs that teach de-escalation and stabilization skills.
The funding also supports healthy after-school activities for children, giving them an alternative to substance use.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. It ensures Coloradans can get the same access to important vaccines they’ve always had.
The federal government has weakened recommendations for childhood vaccinations, including Hepatitis B, measles, and COVID-19. This can lead to people being skeptical about vaccinating their kids, or even to insurance companies not covering these vaccines. This bill rejects the federal government’s recommended changes and ensures all Coloradans have access to the best information about vaccines and insurance coverage of those vaccines.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department is monitoring this bill. The bill focuses on state oversight and regulation of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Adams County.
The bill allows the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to conduct more inspections at the facility. These inspections would cover water safety, living conditions, disease outbreaks, health outcomes for pregnant people and people with chronic conditions, access to food for people with dietary restrictions, and other health concerns.
If the facility does not follow the rules, it could face fins of up to $50,000. the money from these fines would go toward a fund that helps immigrants afford legal services.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department opposes this bill. The bill would have allowed psychoactive hemp products to be sold in more places, including bars, grocery stores, and convenience stores. It would have also created rules for product labeling, dosage limits, and testing requirements.
The Adams County Health Department opposes this bill because it would allow these products to be sold in convenience stores. Research shows that underage youth are sometimes able to buy tobacco and alcohol products from these stories. The Adams County Health Department is concerned that children and teens would also be able to access these psychoactive products.
Status: Failed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. This bill would have removed the age limit for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which reduces poverty by giving people larger tax refunds. Under current law, only people 64 and younger can receive the credit.
The bill would have made adults 65 and older eligible for the tax credit starting in 2028. Estimates show 10,000 to 12,000 seniors in Adams County would benefit from this change and receive larger tax refunds.
While the bill did not pass, it was incorporated into another bill that did pass, so the tax credit will expand to adults 65 and older.
Please note that there are three bills related to this topic:
- Tax Expenditure Adjustments (HB 26-1221): Failed
- Modify Tax Expenditures (HB 26-1222): Failed
- Modifying Certain Tax Expenditures (HB 26-1223): Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this initiative. These bills are a part of a group of bills that close some corporate tax breaks and use money to create a new tax credit to reduce childhood poverty.
The bill package was proposed because the current Family Affordability Tax Credit is expected to be paused in future years due to a lack of extra state funding. While the tax credit was active, it helped reduce childhood poverty in Colorado by nearly 40% when combined with other tax credits.
Status: Passed
The Adams County Health Department supports this bill. However, it was amended significantly in the final days of the session. In its current form, the bill requires the state to provide a list of secure transporters that have contracts with Managed Care Entities and BHASOs.
The Adams County Health Department does not have a position on the latest version of the bill. In its previous form, the bill would have moved licensing and inspections of secure transporters to the state rather than to local health departments.