Colorado Senate Votes to Expand Medicaid Coverage

The Colorado Senate voted this week to extend Medicaid coverage to an additional 160,000 people -- about 20 percent of the total number of uninsured statewide. Here are the details.

* Senate Bill 13-200 expands Medicaid eligibility from 100 percent of the federal poverty level to 133 percent. A family of four can now have an income of $31,322 and qualify.

* According to the bill, money in the hospital provider fee cash fund will be used to increase the income eligibility for parents and caretaker relatives as well as childless adults and adults without a dependent child to up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

* In order to implement the federal Affordable Care Act, the bill also amends optional eligibility groups in the state's medicaid program to 133 percent.

* According to analysis of the bill, the increase in Medicaid eligibility will cost the state an additional $345.3 million and the hiring of 17.8 full-time employees.

* The costs include county administration, employee benefits, the provision of continuous eligibility for children, the addition of individuals who are currently eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid and county training costs.

* Bill sponsor Sen. Irene Aguilar, D-Denver, stated that 58 percent of the people who will benefit from the expansion of Medicaid in Colorado are employed.

* According to the Durango Herald , every Republican but one opposed the expansion. Sen. Larry Crowder, R-Alamosa, voted for it.

* With 14 of his 16 counties having a rate of more than 20 percent of the population in poverty, Crowder said, the bill will help hospitals in his district that are in financial trouble because of uninsured patients who can't afford to pay.

* However, the Herald reported, Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, opposed the measure, stating that studies show that 7 percent to 9 percent of Medicaid spending is improper or fraudulent.

* The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing stated that the health care provider fee, which was authorized as part of the 2009 Colorado Health Care Affordability Act, charges a hospital provider fee in order to help pay for the Medicaid expansion. The fee is matched by federal dollars.

* The bill is now up for consideration by the Colorado House of Representatives.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-senate-votes-expand-medicaid-coverage-212800766.html

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