The poor, elderly and disabled don’t have an easy time getting government-funded health care in Colorado. The state ranks in the bottom 10 states nationally when it comes to opening its Medicaid program to needy people, according to a report released last month by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which did a state-by-state comparison of Medicaid programs.
State Sen. Bob Hagedorn, chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, says that a separate ranking from the nonprofit Families USA puts Colorado at No. 42 for children’s access to coverage, an equally dismal statistic.
We’ve known for some time that Colorado’s eligibility rules are burdensome and that its scope of services is unduly limited, so it wasn’t surprising to find the state ranked so low in those categories. But we were surprised to find it ranked low in quality of care.
That ranking is particularly embarrassing given that Colorado’s median household income is above the national average. It was the only state with such a high median income to rank so low. It ranked alongside Mississippi and Alabama, states whose median incomes are well below the national average.
Among other things, Colorado’s Medicaid program denies coverage to people specifically impoverished by high medical bills, known as the “medically needy.” And it excludes from coverage many people who cannot afford private insurance.
The legislature is taking incremental steps to improve health coverage, and lawmakers for now are doing the best they can with a limited budget. The need in Colorado is so great and the resources so few, “it’s like 1,001 pickup sticks,” Hagedorn said. “It’s almost overwhelming where to begin.”
Three important measures were passed this year. Senate Bill 1 enables uninsured people to buy generic drugs at a discount; SB 211 begins to develop a comprehensive plan for insuring the state’s 170,000 uninsured children by 2010 and establishes a “presumption” that a child whose family meets eligibility criteria is eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Plan program; SB 196 expands the use of telemedicine for Medicaid clients, a program with potential for savings, Hagedorn said.
Colorado’s low ranking in quality of care was due to deficiencies in nursing home care. It also earned a “zero” for what the report called a “poor record on childhood immunization.” In scope of services, it ranked low for failing to cover such things as hearing aids, dentures and other medical devices.
Joan Henneberry, the new executive director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which oversees the Medicaid budget, said that Gov. Bill Ritter is committed to improving all of the categories on which the state ranked low. It is a lofty goal. And it will be a huge challenge to keep the state’s $3 billion Medicaid budget under control while helping more needy Coloradans.
