Tagged: Medicaid

A campaign to provide health insurance to children is showing progress in Colorado, where two surveys show the number of uninsured kids is down to 8 to 10 percent.

When it came to health, what was most surprising was how little President Obama had to say in his State of the Union address. His landmark 2010 health overhaul — whose fate is currently before the Supreme Court and whose repeal is the top priority for every GOP presidential candidate — got barely a passing mention.

Colorado lawmakers expect to consider numerous healthcare-related issues this session, from tougher “truth in advertising” requirements for medical providers to imposing more stringent standards for food sold in public schools.

Five years of high unemployment have driven another 216,000 Coloradans into such dire straits that they qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.

That jump – to a total of 608,000 people in major financial trouble – has cost Colorado’s budget an extra $1.4 billion since 2007. The continuing rise in the cost of Medicaid is the main reason the governor proposed cutting school funding again this year.