Medicaid Spending on Immigrants in Colorado

Colorado is facing a $1.5 billion budget shortfall. This is the worst fiscal position the state has ever been in.

One of the fastest-growing pieces of the budget right now is the state’s Medicaid and health care spending, which grows exponentially year over year – but one piece of this has exploded far beyond the initial projections.

The “Cover All Coloradans” program, created through HB22-1289 and passed on a party-line vote, provides taxpayer-funded health coverage to children and pregnant women who do NOT qualify for Medicaid or CHP+ due to immigration status.

At the time HB22-1289 passed, it was estimated approx 3,600 individuals would be enrolled, most of them being children, with a price tag of $27 million. The program did not take effect until 2024.

But that same program now enrolls more than 30,000 people! And it’s causing the state’s healthcare spending to explode.

The current projection is about $185.3 million for budget year 26-27, with $127.4 million coming from our general fund and $57.9 million coming from federal sources.

This ballooning program is the result of a chain reaction that moved very quickly, starting at the federal level.

Starting in early 2023, the Biden administration expanded the “CBP One” app into a primary system for immigrants seeking entry into the US through ports of entry. Over roughly two years, through early 2025, more than 900,000 people came into the country using that app. Yes, you read that correctly, nearly 1 million people in two years! All above board, all invited in by our federal government, and this was in addition to those who entered illegally. They were moved into communities across the country, with the bulk landing in sanctuary states like Colorado.

This created a domino effect.

A federal entry system increased the number of people coming in. State policies determined where they went. State programs determined what benefits they received. And the cost shows up in the state budget.

Now those costs are growing at the same time Colorado is cutting services elsewhere to deal with a historic deficit. As for the CBP One system, it is now being used in reverse to facilitate voluntary deportations. That does create an opportunity to reduce the strain on state resources, including healthcare programs that are already under pressure, but it is not fast enough.

Voters deserve to know where their tax dollars are being spent. They also deserve to know how we got here.

I’m running to be the Representative for Colorado State House District 51, bringing the voice of Loveland to the State Capitol in Denver.

Learn more and get connected with my campaign: www.NancyForHD51.com

Find more info about the Cover All Coloradans fiscal impact here: https://www.coloradopolitics.com/…/costs-explode-for…/

HB26-1411 has been introduced to slightly scale back this program and is included in these cost estimates: https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1411

And for an update on the CBP One app, this NPR article gives the latest: https://www.npr.org/…/federal-judge-rules-dhs-illegally…

For those who don’t know, the CBP One system was launched in 2020 as a way to allow travelers and commercial trucking companies to schedule inspections and access services. Its expansion was unprecedented.