Velma Donahue was going through the worst week of her life. Her husband Cody, a Colorado State Patrol trooper, was killed in a crash along I-25. The day before his funeral, she took her daughter to the doctor and was told she didn’t have health insurance.
According to current Colorado law, insurance benefits for families of a state employee who is killed on the job expire on the first day of the next month. For Velma, that was six days after her husband died.