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Colorado Democrats are celebrating a new law that will go into effect on January 1 that will extend free Medicaid coverage to illegal migrants who are pregnant as well as migrant children.
Dubbed “Cover All Coloradans,” the program opens up state Medicaid funding for prenatal and postpartum care, physical, dental, vision, and mental health care for children, with an initial price tag of up to $51 million in costs to the Colorado taxpayer, according to CBS News.
Democrat Gov. Jared Polis’ administration is working with a list of immigrant activist groups to alert migrants that they are eligible for the program and can sign up while assuring migrants that their personal information and lack of legal immigration status will not be supplied to immigration officials.
Bryan Rodriguez, Denver Health Program Manager, noted that he and his operatives are hastening to inform migrants that their immigration status will not be used against them as the Trump administration gears up in January.
“Based on current Colorado state laws they protect the privacy of the clients that are applying for these public benefits,” Rodriguez explained.
But the massive costs of the program have always worried many state Republicans who unsuccessfully voted against this expansion of Medicaid when the bill was passed in 2022.
“We as Coloradans and lawmakers are going to have to deal with how we pay for this. The cost is going to be fourfold what we anticipated two years ago,” Republican State Representative Soper said, adding that many citizens are actually seeing their benefits cut due to budget limitations.
“We shouldn’t be giving programs and services to undocumented immigrants that we aren’t giving to citizens who are within Colorado,” Soper exclaimed.
Colorado is far from the only region where these costs are escalating. The costs of doling out free medical care to illegal migrants is costing the U.S. billions every year.
A November 2023 report released by the House Committee on Homeland Security reported that an estimated $451 billion in yearly costs are connected to the Biden administration’s border crisis, and a large part of that expenditure is going to medical care for illegals.
While the vast majority of illegals don’t have insurance, they’re free to rack up debt with long hospital stays. Many are also able to get government welfare, including Medicaid. All an illegal migrant would have to do is cross the southern border into California to receive taxpayer-funded insurance.
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