Colorado Health Insurance Sees Rapid Change
February 2008
The state of Colorado is enduring some rapid shifts in their medical insurance system this month, including losing nearly $812 million in potential budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, and simultaneously setting goals to add coverage for over 180,000 children.
If President George W. Bush's proposed budget cuts in the Medicaid and Medicare health plans go into effect Colorado health insurance, like health care in many states, stands to lose a lot of money. The president last week unveiled his budget proposal for the 2009 fiscal year, with an unprecedented $182 billion in cuts to the programs over the next five years. Colorado itself stands to lose over $800 million in federal funding for subsidized medical insurance programs.
And at the same time, this week the Colorado Senate approved Senate Joint Resolution 8, which proposes to give all Colorado children access to health care by 2010. The resolution sets a goal of extending medical insurance to roughly 180,000 uninsured kids in Colorado, but significantly provides no details on how the state will achieve that goal.
And now, with these budget cuts looming over all Colorado health insurance programs, whether or not Joint Resolution 8 will ever come to pass is debatable.
Some say that since President Bush is term limited and will leave office next year, the cuts may not go into effect over the five-year period. And of course, the health care system we have in 2009 will depend in large part on who takes his place in the White House.
But until then it's going to be a long year, and those who don't have an affordable health insurance plan today would be wise to start shopping around soon.
|
|