State officials say they have found a way to save a planned expansion of health care for uninsured children, a program that had been put on the chopping block.
The solution would come from a fee the state wants to place on hospitals that is expected to generate from $800 million to $1.2 billion annually, half of which would be federal matching money. Revenue from the fee would be used to expand Medicaid coverage and other programs to at least 100,000 of an estimated 800,000 uninsured Coloradans.
However, officials with the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing say the fee, which lawmakers still must approve, also could be used to finance a planned expansion of the Children’s Basic Health Plan Plus, sometimes referred to as CHP+.
There are an estimated 180,000 uninsured children in Colorado.
Lawmakers last year passed a bill that funded an expansion of CHP+, increasing eligibility to children in households at 225 percent of the federal poverty level, up from 205 percent. Under current eligibility limits, a family of four making $43,000 could get CHP+ services.
The expansion was estimated to provide health care for an additional 9,040 uninsured children over three years.
However, Gov. Bill Ritter proposed that the plan be indefinitely delayed because of the state’s budget woes, which include a $600 million deficit for the budget year that ends in June and a projected $385 million hole the next.
“That’s just one good example of how difficult these cuts are,” Ritter said after proposing his cuts last week.
But officials with the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing say the expansion could be saved.
Chris Underwood, director of state programs and federal financing at the department, said the plan is to ask lawmakers to pass legislation canceling the CHP+ expansion approved last year. The expanded eligibility was to kick in March 1.
Meanwhile, Underwood said, the hospital fee would provide enough revenue to cover the expansion of CHP+ to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, an increase beyond the original expansion that would cover an additional 11,000 children.
Federal guidelines say that hospital fees that bring in additional federal matching funds can’t be used to backfill cuts to existing programs. However, Underwood said Colorado would be in compliance with the rules.
“There’s no backfill because the program never took effect,” he said.
Underwood said federal officials support the plan.
The hospital-provider fee also would expand Medicaid coverage for parents from the current income-eligibility threshold of 60 percent of the federal poverty level to 100 percent. Current limits allow a family of four making $12,720 a year to get Medicaid services.
The expansion also would provide coverage for single adults — who now are not covered — with incomes at 100 percent of the poverty level.
