Senate debates Medicaid and "Cover All Coloradans" program; amendments fail and supplemental is adopted

After the clerk read House Bill 11-55, a supplemental appropriation for the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the Senate spent the bulk of the morning and early afternoon in a sustained and detailed debate over the package’s fiscal priorities.

At issue were two linked topics: the Cover All Coloradans program (a state-funded entitlement extending coverage to some pregnant people and children regardless of immigration status) and proposed Medicaid provider-rate cuts. Senator Kirkmeyer warned that the Cover All Coloradans line item had grown far beyond early projections, saying in floor remarks that current fiscal-year estimates had "balloon[ed] to $80,000,000" and arguing that the program does not pull down a federal match in the way some other Medicaid programs do. She urged…