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Colorado’s Medicaid growth is colliding with fiscal reality
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s Medicaid growth is colliding with fiscal reality

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer A new report from the Common Sense Institute (CSI) warns that Colorado’s Medicaid program is on an unsustainable path—driven by rapid expansion at the state level and compounded by shrinking federal support. The warning comes as lawmakers prepare for a possible special session to address the state’s growing budget deficit. State policy has driven major cost growth Since 2019, Colorado has enacted 182 healthcare-related laws, with 21 of them expanding Medicaid eligibility or benefits. According to CSI’s July 2025 report, these expansions alone add approximately $158 million in recurring annual state costs. In total, the new legislation contributes around $858 million per year in additional Medicaid-related spending. Only 36% of that new spend...
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Colorado braces for $858M healthcare shift as feds pull back Medicaid, SNAP funding, prompting special session
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado braces for $858M healthcare shift as feds pull back Medicaid, SNAP funding, prompting special session

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Colorado legislators met at the state Capitol on Friday morning to review how the recently-adopted federal budget will affect health issues in the state. The review is among the steps lawmakers are taking in preparation for an expected special session. Multiple sources have told Colorado Politics that the special session will take place during the week of Aug. 18. Friday's meeting wasn't publicly announced on the legislature's website; the General Assembly had earlier cut funding for many interim committees due to budget constraints.  Senate Democrats announced on their website an "informal meeting" of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which drew a dozen lawmakers and dozens of lobbyists, journalists and others to the ...
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Vivanco: How the empty outrage over Medicaid reform misses the point
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Real Clear Politics, Approved, Commentary, National

Vivanco: How the empty outrage over Medicaid reform misses the point

By Bautista Vivanco | Commentary, Real Clear Politics Democrats bemoaning the loss of Medicaid coverage are glossing over a critical fact: States could fund the program themselves if they wanted to. The truth is, Medicaid is not nearly as popular as the taxes needed to keep it afloat. There is a lot to complain about Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB), signed into law last week. For example, it will add trillions to the deficit while allocating billions to be used for deporting hard-working immigrants and even American citizens. Yet Democrats are denouncing it not for its lack of fiscal responsibility, but rather for one of its only positive provisions: its reforms to Medicaid. Original versions of the bill included various reforms to Medicaid, like work...
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Colorado insurance division warns of 28% hike—Democrats blame Congress, not policy
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado insurance division warns of 28% hike—Democrats blame Congress, not policy

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Health insurance for the individual market in Colorado could increase by 28% for 2026, according to the Colorado Division of Insurance. And the rate for the Western Slope could be even higher, averaging as much as 38%, the division said on Wednesday. Rate filings will become public on Friday. The division attributed the above-average increases to President Donald Trump’s federal tax bill, recently passed by Congress. "These circumstances are not unique to Colorado, and other states will likely have similar increases," the division said in a statement Wednesday. The driver for those increases is the loss of financial assistance that helps people afford health insurance, and which also puts downward pressure on premium rates. That assis...
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York: Medicaid, The Big Beautiful Bill—and Obama’s revenge
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Washington Examiner, Approved, National

York: Medicaid, The Big Beautiful Bill—and Obama’s revenge

By Byron York | Commentary, Washington Examiner MEDICAID, THE BBB, AND OBAMA’S REVENGE. It’s reasonable to view the angry debate over the Medicaid provisions of the recently signed-into-law One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with Democrats accusing President Donald Trump and Republicans of taking away healthcare from millions of people, as the inevitable result of the scheme that then-President Barack Obama and Democrats set in motion in 2010. Back then, many in the party wanted to create a single-payer national healthcare system but did not have the political support to do so. So Democratic leaders debated among themselves about how to get as far as they could with their existing (big) majorities in the House and Senate. After much effort, they came up with the Affordable Care Act, better...
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Independence Day victory: Trump signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’—slashes taxes and boosts oil, gas and defense
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THE HILL, Approved, National

Independence Day victory: Trump signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’—slashes taxes and boosts oil, gas and defense

By Brett Samuels | The Hill President Trump on Friday signed a massive reconciliation package that will extend tax cuts and phase-in cuts to Medicaid, finalizing a significant legislative victory for his administration after months of difficult negotiations with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump signed the one big, beautiful bill into law at a military family picnic at the White House for the Fourth of July. Trump and his aides had long pegged Independence Day as a deadline for when they hoped to see the legislation on his desk, a timeline that appeared in peril just days ago. “We made promises, and it’s really promises made, promises kept, and we’ve kept them,” Trump said from the balcony overlooking the South Lawn of the White House. “This is a triumph of democracy on the birth...
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President Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ bill heads to his desk after marathon House-Senate push
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Daily Wire, Approved, National

President Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ bill heads to his desk after marathon House-Senate push

By Leif Le Mahieu | Daily Wire "Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America's new golden age."  The House passed President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” on Thursday, overcoming significant Democratic opposition and internal Republican hesitancy to hand the president a major legislative victory.  The Republican-controlled House voted 218-214 to pass the measure shortly after Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrapped up an hours-long speech delaying the bill’s advancement. Trump, who imposed a July 4 deadline for its passage, is expected to sign the bill at the White House sometime on Friday.   “With one big, beautiful bill, we are going to make this country stronger, safer, and more prosperous than ever before. And every American is going to benefit fr...
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$2.3B at risk? House Republicans press Polis to end Medicaid funding for illegals
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

$2.3B at risk? House Republicans press Polis to end Medicaid funding for illegals

By Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Three Republican members of Colorado's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives are urging Gov. Jared Polis to work with legislators to end state spending on health care coverage for undocumented immigrants — or risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding. "We write to you expressing grave concerns over Colorado’s continued policy of covering illegal immigrants with state Medicaid funds — prioritizing benefits for those unlawfully present in our country over citizens who need it the most: individuals with disabilities, single mothers, children, and seniors," U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans wrote in a letter delivered to the Democratic governor on Thursday. The letter was also signed by U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert and Jeff Cr...
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‘Big Beautiful Bill’: Boebert and Evans tout as win for families and national security
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Approved, DENVER7, National, State

‘Big Beautiful Bill’: Boebert and Evans tout as win for families and national security

By Brandon Richard | Denver7 Protesters from progressive groups disrupt Republican lawmakers' press conference with chants DENVER — U.S. Representatives Gabe Evans and Lauren Boebert defended their support for President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending bill on Thursday, as protesters attempted to drown them out during a press conference at the Colorado State Capitol. As the Colorado Republicans touted the bill’s economic and public safety benefits, they were met with constant chants and signs from protesters who accused them of cutting vital programs like Medicaid. “It’s really unfortunate, as a mother of four boys and a grandmother, that I see more order in my home with children than I do with radical leftists,” Boebert said, responding to the disruptions. Despi...
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Colorado Republican Congress members rally behind Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’
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Approved, National, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado Republican Congress members rally behind Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

By Caitlyn Kim | The Colorado Sun House leaders are trying to pass the massive package with Republican votes alone. Trump came to the Capitol Tuesday morning to convince the holdouts to back the bill. President Donald Trump left a meeting with the Republican caucus Tuesday morning predicting a great victory. His trek to the U.S. Capitol came as GOP leaders try to get his “big, beautiful bill” passed in the House this week.   House Speaker Mike Johnson, whose party holds a slim majority, has been trying to stitch together a bill that can deliver on Trump’s agenda while threading the needle between his far right faction, his swing seat members, and others in the caucus, as the different factions seek opposing changes to the bill. “Anybody that didn’t support [the bil...
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