DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a $1 billion expansion of health care for the poor Monday.
An estimated 189,000 Coloradans will get government health insurance – known as Medicaid – thanks to the bill.
The expansion was one of the highest priorities for Democrats, and is a key piece of implementing President Barack Obama’s health-care law in Colorado.
“This is going to support working Coloradans and improve economic security for individuals and families and ultimately even for businesses,” Hickenlooper said. “The bottom line is it keeps our businesses going and makes sure that our employees at so many of our businesses, when they’re hurt, when they suffer and illness or an accident at home, we make sure they have the medical attention that they need.”
Hospitals and doctors’ groups supported the bill – Senate Bill 200 – because they think it will reduce the amount of charity care they have to provide at emergency rooms.
Hickenlooper stressed no general-tax money would be used to pay for the expansion. Instead, the federal government will pick up the full cost for the first three years, tapering down to 90 percent by 2020. An existing tax on hospitals will cover Colorado’s 10 percent of the cost.
But Republicans called the bill irresponsible for the state and national budgets.
During the bill’s debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, said Colorado and especially the Four Corners lacks enough doctors to provide for the Medicaid patients already on the rolls.
“Expanding a program, increasing the number of Medicaid patients when we can’t even care for the ones we have, to me is particularly concerning,” Roberts said.
Roberts also said Colorado hasn’t done enough to root out Medicaid fraud. And, she said, Congress might put a stop to the way Colorado and other states are paying their share of the expansion through a hospital tax, which draws even more federal money.
Other Republicans, such as Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, had more fundamental objections.
“It is one more step to the government controlling your medical life. I don’t believe in that kind of socialist mentality,” Lundberg said.
The new law expands eligibility for Medicaid to people making 133 percent of the federal poverty level, up from a current 100 percent. The new cutoff line will be a yearly income of $14,856 for an individual or $30,657 for a family of four.
The expansion was supposed to happen automatically through the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. But the U.S. Supreme Court threw out that portion of the law and left it to the states to decide whether to expand Medicaid.
In the Legislature, SB 200 passed on highly partisan votes. No Democrat voted against it, and only one Republican voted for it – Sen. Larry Crowder of Alamosa.
Hickenlooper’s signature on the bill was never in doubt. He called for Medicaid expansion during his State of the State address in January.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
