The Second Regular Session of the 74th General Assembly is well underway!
Learn more about CCLP’s legislative platform for 2024 and the bills we’re most excited to support!

Focus areas /

Health

Quality, affordable health care. For every Coloradan.

Ensuring access to quality, affordable health care is a critical part of ensuring that Coloradans can thrive at home, school, work and in their communities. We use research and legal analysis to develop, implement and enforce policies that reverse inequities in access and help families achieve better health.

Our Approach

Our work aims at ensuring that affordability coverage programs, including Medicaid, Child Health Plus (CHP+) and subsidized commercial plans, are comprehensive, efficient and effective so that Coloradans have access to preventive care and treatment that will enhance their lives in the short- and long-term. Our complex systems can be challenging, so we also provide Coloradans with more tools to advocate on their own behalf, and to get the care they and their families need.

Our Progress

  • We testify regularly before the state Medicaid Services Board. We advocated successfully for changes to state Medicaid rules on eligible immigration statuses, ensuring consistency with Federal requirements and reversing a practice of denying children the opportunity to apply for Medicaid coverage. Other rule-making wins include our efforts to ensure that children did not face inappropriate limitations on access to Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and other behavioral therapies.
  • When InnovAge, a nonprofit Medicaid program, converted to for-profit status in 2016, we led stakeholder efforts to ensure that the public received the full value of that conversion in the form of an independent foundation, Next Fifty, with our advocacy keeping the bulk of those assets in Colorado and increasing its valuation by $16 million.
  • We represented an individual denied Medicaid coverage and discovered that the state was over-counting income for families with children who received Social Security benefits. Our advocacy led to re-programming of the state eligibility system, potentially expanding access to tens of thousands of individuals.
  • Along with our advocacy partners, we worked with the Attorney General’s office and Medicaid agency to make technical changes to eligibility processes for the Medicaid Buy-In for Disabled Adults, preventing wrongful terminations for individuals who rely on the program to work and remain vital community members.
  • We led efforts to educate advocates and community members throughout the state on the federal public charge rule and its potential impact on access to public benefits, a rule currently enjoined by four federal courts. That advocacy helped spur thousands of comments on the proposed rule and counter widespread misinformation that threatens access for thousands of eligible Coloradans.
  • Our legal analysis on mental health parity contributed to improvements in requirements for behavioral health access in individual market plans and contributed substantially to state-specific parity legislation in 2019 (House Bill 1269).

Resources

Related news

CCLP’s legislative watch for April 5, 2024

Apr 5, 2024

For the 2024 legislative session, CCLP is keeping its eye on bills focused on expanding access to justice, removing administrative burden, preserving affordable communities, advocating for progressive tax and wage policies, and reducing health care costs.

HEALTH:
HEALTH FIRST COLORADO (MEDICAID)

To maintain health and well-being, people of all ages need access to quality health care that improves outcomes and reduces costs for the community. Health First Colorado, the state's Medicaid program, is public health insurance for low-income Coloradans who qualify. The program is funded jointly by a federal-state partnership and is administered by the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing.

Benefits of the program include behavioral health, dental services, emergency care, family planning services, hospitalization, laboratory services, maternity care, newborn care, outpatient care, prescription drugs, preventive and wellness services, primary care and rehabilitative services.

In tandem with the Affordable Care Act, Colorado expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2013 - providing hundreds of thousands of adults with incomes less than 133% FPL with health insurance for the first time increasing the health and economic well-being of these Coloradans. Most of the money for newly eligible Medicaid clients has been covered by the federal government, which will gradually decrease its contribution to 90% by 2020.

Other populations eligible for Medicaid include children, who qualify with income up to 142% FPL, pregnant women with household income under 195% FPL, and adults with dependent children with household income under 68% FPL.

Some analyses indicate that Colorado's investment in Medicaid will pay off in the long run by reducing spending on programs for the uninsured.

FOOD SECURITY:
SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (SNAP)

Hunger, though often invisible, affects everyone. It impacts people's physical, mental and emotional health and can be a culprit of obesity, depression, acute and chronic illnesses and other preventable medical conditions. Hunger also hinders education and productivity, not only stunting a child's overall well-being and academic achievement, but consuming an adult's ability to be a focused, industrious member of society. Even those who have never worried about having enough food experience the ripple effects of hunger, which seeps into our communities and erodes our state's economy.

Community resources like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, exist to ensure that families and individuals can purchase groceries, with the average benefit being about $1.40 per meal, per person.

Funding for SNAP comes from the USDA, but the administrative costs are split between local, state, and federal governments. Yet, the lack of investment in a strong, effective SNAP program impedes Colorado's progress in becoming the healthiest state in the nation and providing a better, brighter future for all. Indeed, Colorado ranks 44th in the nation for access to SNAP and lost out on more than $261 million in grocery sales due to a large access gap in SNAP enrollment.

See the Food Assistance (SNAP) Benefit Calculator to get an estimate of your eligibility for food benefits.

FOOD SECURITY:
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM FOR WOMEN, INFANTS AND CHILDREN (WIC)

Every child deserves the nutritional resources needed to get a healthy start on life both inside and outside the mother's womb. In particular, good nutrition and health care is critical for establishing a strong foundation that could affect a child's future physical and mental health, academic achievement and economic productivity. Likewise, the inability to access good nutrition and health care endangers the very integrity of that foundation.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition information for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding and non-breastfeeding postpartum women and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.

Research has shown that WIC has played an important role in improving birth outcomes and containing health care costs, resulting in longer pregnancies, fewer infant deaths, a greater likelihood of receiving prenatal care, improved infant-feeding practices, and immunization rates

Financial Security:
Colorado Works

In building a foundation for self-sufficiency, some Colorado families need some extra tools to ensure they can weather challenging financial circumstances and obtain basic resources to help them and their communities reach their potential.

Colorado Works is Colorado's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and provides public assistance to families in need. The Colorado Works program is designed to assist participants in becoming self-sufficient by strengthening the economic and social stability of families. The program provides monthly cash assistance and support services to eligible Colorado families.

The program is primarily funded by a federal block grant to the state. Counties also contribute about 20% of the cost.

EARLY LEARNING:
COLORADO CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (CCCAP)

Child care is a must for working families. Along with ensuring that parents can work or obtain job skills training to improve their families' economic security, studies show that quality child care improves children's academic performance, career development and health outcomes.

Yet despite these proven benefits, low-income families often struggle with the cost of child care. Colorado ranks among the top 10 most expensive states in the country for center-based child care. For families with an infant, full-time enrollment at a child care center cost an average of $15,140 a year-or about three-quarters of the total income of a family of three living at the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).

The Colorado Child Care Assistance Program (CCCAP) provides child care assistance to parents who are working, searching for employment or participating in training, and parents who are enrolled in the Colorado Works Program and need child care services to support their efforts toward self-sufficiency. Most of the money for CCCAP comes from the federal Child Care and Development Fund. Each county can set their own income eligibility limit as long as it is at or above 165% of the federal poverty level and does not exceed 85% of area median income.

Unfortunately, while the need is growing, only an estimated one-quarter of all eligible children in the state are served by CCCAP. Low reimbursement rates have also resulted in fewer providers willing to accept CCCAP subsidies.