Colorado’s state treasurer Dave Young, a Democrat, spoke out Wednesday against potential Medicaid cuts from the Republican Congress.
“If federal cuts go through, our state must make up the difference by slashing other essential programs like education, or kicking thousands of Coloradans off Medicaid,” Young said in a call with reporters, joined by three other Democratic state treasurers. “Neither option is acceptable to me. That's why we must do everything we can to protect Medicaid.”
Medicaid is a $880 billion-a-year state-federal program.
About 1.2 million people, a fifth of the state’s population, depend on the program, which Young said accounts for about a third of the state’s budget. That list includes seniors, disabled people, pregnant mothers and working class families.
It also includes Young’s sister Dorothy, who has significant cognitive, mental health and behavioral disabilities and lives in a group home in Pueblo West.
Young said, like many families with a member enrolled in Medicaid, the program is a lifeline.
“Her needs are so tremendous. The ability for us to deliver life sustaining care for her far outstrips our abilities, even if we quit our jobs, we just don't have the capacity to do this,” Young said. “This is why I appreciate what Medicaid provides because it's allowed her through almost 69 years of life to have life sustaining care and without this critical resource, we would really struggle.”
Young said he knows this for a fact because 25 years ago the Medicaid program in the state was severely underfunded. For about 18 months, Dorothy went through 20 residential placements; she was essentially homeless.
“This is somebody who has no ability to care for herself in the community, but was out on the street because Medicaid didn't have enough money to support her. And so as you can imagine, our family was just totally in crisis,” Young said, noting thousands of Colorado families have endured similar struggles.
Young, who began his career as an educator, said that experience led him to run for office, first being appointed to represent a district around Greeley, and then winning election in 2012. He was elected state treasurer in 2018.
He said Medicaid makes healthcare accessible, improves long-term outcomes and helps families stave off medical debt.
“The stakes are too high to sit this one out, we need a vocal united and bipartisan coalition to defend Medicaid,” he said, urging President Trump and Republican lawmakers to take the cuts off the table and preserve benefits for millions of Americans.
Deep cuts to Medicaid, as well as the federal nutrition program SNAP, could cost Colorado 14,000 jobs and cause a $1 billion hit to the state’s budget next year, according to a report released Tuesday.
Colorado simply doesn’t have the money to cover the deep cuts,Young said “You keep cutting Medicaid and you put more and more burden on the state finances, we don't have the capacity to backfill as needed there,” Young said. He said hospitals, who have to care for anyone who comes through their doors, will struggle to cover uncompensated care, caring for patients with no health insurance, and some could close their doors.
“We're in a huge vise here,” said Young, adding that if cutbacks hit the state agency that administers the program, many Medicaid recipients and their families will struggle to provide care on their own.
He noted that his sister is not part of the population that got care as part of the expansion of Medicaid; she was enrolled before that. But he worries enrollees in the entire program will feel the impact if the expansion is cut back.
“So are they going to start cutting back services and say, ‘well, we'll give you some money. She has to live in your home. We'll give you a little money, but she's going to have to live in your home.’ We don't have the capacity,” Young said.
Republicans say cuts are needed due to “waste, fraud and abuse”
Republicans, who control both chambers of of Congress, are pushing to extend existing tax cuts, which could cost as much as $4.5 trillion.
Some criticize the administration of Medicaid under Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Democrats, saying they need to fix Colorado’s program before laying blame on the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.
“We know that there is fraud, waste and abuse in the system that we have to be able to find so that we can actually save Medicaid for the vulnerable populations who need it most.” said Rep. Gabe Evans, a Republican who represents the 8th Congressional district in northern Colorado.
A spokesperson for Evans said, via email, that House and Senate leaders met Tuesday and planned to release updated budget numbers in a few weeks.
Others in the GOP have discussed a desire to make the program more efficient.
“We need to make sure that we use those Medicaid dollars effectively. If you look at the expansion in Medicaid spending in our country, it's certainly exploded in part because of the (Affordable Care Act) expansion,” said Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Republican representing the 3rd Congressional district in western and southern Colorado. A staffer told Rep. Hurd, hedoes not support cuts to Medicaid.
Republicans have also accused Democrats and advocacy groups of fearmongering.
“I think there’s groups out there that are trying to scare people, frankly for their own political purposes, to try and scare people into believing that there’s going to be all these massive Medicaid cuts,” said Republican Rep. Jeff Crank, who represents the 5th district around Colorado Springs, earlier this month on Fox 21. “And that hasn’t been the case, that’s not the intention of anybody here, is to cut people off of Medicaid.”
Deep cuts could have a big impact on Congressional districts around the state. For example, the 3rd and 5th districts, both swing districts, would each lose more than $2 billion in funding in the coming years. That’s according to one analysis, from the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy think tank. Nearly 60,000 residents in Rep. Hurd’s district are at risk of losing coverage; for Rep. Evans’ district the figure is more than 40,0000.
Young pushes back on waste and fraud claims
In response, Young urged policymakers to not make assumptions about people getting services from Medicaid, saying he hears many using political talking points and catchphrases.
“All ‘they don't work’ and ‘they're just taking advantage of a system’ or whatever. ‘There's all kinds of fraud and abuse.’ Those are not substantiated claims. They need to dig deeper into that,” Young said. “They also need to understand the everyday grind, the people that have a family member, a loved one that is coping with challenges like my sister are going through.”
He pointed out that his sister is not part of the Medicaid expansion population created under the Affordable Care Act.But he said if deep cuts are made, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans could lose coverage and then still need to get care, which will be even more expensive, at hospitals when they get sick.
“When we expanded Medicaid to include the expansion population, we promoted better care for people so that we could actually get better health outcomes and save money,” Young said. “By going the opposite direction, you go in the direction of poor healthcare outcomes for people and higher costs. I don't know in what universe that makes sense.”
Another state treasurer, Laura Montoya from New Mexico, described GOP criticisms of the program as gaslighting and careless. She said every government agency has an audit every year, allowing for programs to correct problems.
“The other part is if we're going to look at that mindset, fraud, waste, and abuse, why don't we look at all the tax write-offs?” she said. “How about we look at it from the perspective of not allowing people to have any tax breaks until we figure it out to see who's doing it the right way? We should start there.”
The House spending bill passed earlier this month would cut more than $1 trillion in funding allocated by the committees responsible for Medicaid and SNAP benefits. That blueprint does not spell out any specific cuts. However experts believe the only way reductions of that size could be found would be by slashing the two programs.
The call with the state treasurers was organized by Americans for Responsible Growth, a national advocacy group focused on “ensuring long-term sustainable economic growth, lowering costs for consumers, and protecting states' financial stability.”
