The Joint Budget Committee is exploring — over the concerns of some Republican lawmakers — shifting health care coverage for some the children of state employees to a program heavily subsidized by the federal government.
The committee is considering whether state employees’ children should be allowed to participate in the Children’s Basic Health Plan, or CHP+, which covers children of low-income families and pregnant women who still earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
The state funds 35 percent of the program, which now covers about 85,000 children and 2,500 pregnant women.
The federal government picks up the remaining 65 percent.
The state spent an estimated $216.4 million on CHP+ for the 2010-11 fiscal year that ended Thursday.
State employees were initially barred from participating when the federal-state program was started in 1997. Those rules were changed under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the national health care reform law.
Now the state of Colorado is looking at whether it might be cheaper — for the state and its employees — to have some state workers’ children covered by CHP+ instead of remaining on the state’s health insurance.
No one is sure yet how many state workers might be eligible to enroll their kids in CHP+. Republicans on the Joint Budget Committee blanched at the idea initially but agreed to allow staff to study it.
“To me, that was just a very, very depressing point when you get to that level,” said Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen. “I just felt like it was a complete and total breakdown in responsibility on the state’s part. I hate to see that the state is that broke and we’re at that level.”
Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, said he had reservations about the idea but agreed to allow Joint Budget Committee staff to research it.
“I think we have to have the information to make informed decisions,” Becker said.
For Democrats on the committee, the potential of shifting some of the burden of state workers’ health coverage onto the federal government reflected the struggles that many state workers face.
State employees have not had pay raises for three years and faced furloughs in 2009. They also have had their take-home pay cut the past two years as lawmakers increased their pension contributions.
“I think we should look at it,” Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, said of allowing state employees to participate in CHP+. “It might end up saving money for the state.
“I think that actually tells a better story of how we’re compensating state employees,” he said.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
