DENVER—Colorado Republicans warn that the hundreds of millions of dollars that it would cost to expand Medicaid will test the limits of the state budget.
Expanding Medicaid coverage is one of the key provisions of the federal health care law that the Supreme Court upheld. But the ruling also gives states wiggle room to reject the expansion, and Colorado Republicans have expressed concern about the growth of Medicaid spending, even before the health care ruling.
The Denver Post reports Thursday ( ) that a Kaiser Family Foundation study shows Colorado would spend $470 million for its share of the Medicaid expansion between 2014 and 2019. The study says the federal government’s share of the expansion for Colorado would be $6.9 billion during that time, or 94 percent.
“To me, it’s not an issue of ‘can we expand?’ It’s ‘can we afford what we’ve got?'” said Republican Rep. Cheri Gerou, who leads the Colorado Joint Budget Committee. Medicaid spending accounted for the largest increase in spending growth in the state budget that lawmakers approved this spring.
Some Colorado health officials say the estimates for what it would cost to expand Medicaid may be too high. They say a hospital provider fee that the state passed in 2009 should cover some of the expansion.
Lorez Meinhold, health-policy director for Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, said it was “premature” to answer the question of Medicaid expansion. She told the newspaper that state officials will be calculating eligibility, the provider fee and other information for the fall budget estimates.
The Supreme Court’s ruling said the federal government could not threaten to pull current aid from states that rejected the new Medicaid expansion. Florida, Missouri and Mississippi have said they may use that flexibility.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
