DENVER — Now that President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ is law, the focus shifts to states like Colorado, which will be tasked with finding ways to address spending cuts to programs like Medicaid.
For Trump and Republicans in Congress, the ‘big, beautiful bill’ is a big, beautiful victory.
“It’s the most popular bill ever signed in the history of our country,” Trump said Friday before signing the bill into law.
- Read the full bill below
But not everyone is celebrating. Adam Fox with the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is worried about the spending cuts the law makes to Medicaid.
“I think we anticipate probably hundreds of thousands of Coloradans losing coverage because of the cuts that are incorporated into this bill,” said Fox.
Colorado, like other states, has already been spending more on Medicaid in recent years. Under the new law, it will have to pick up even more of the costs, including overseeing new Medicaid work mandates that will require additional resources.
Colorado's Office of State Planning and Budgeting, which evaluated the House version of the bill, said Colorado could see about half a billion dollars less in revenue each year and about half a billion in additional costs.
The governor’s office told Denver7 it’s still reviewing the impacts of this new law to evaluate next steps, including a potential special session.
“President Trump’s new deficit spending, bureaucracy-building law, which was voted for by all four of Colorado’s Republican delegation members, will kick people off their health care, threaten food access for children and families, and hurt jobs across the state,” said Eric Maruyama, the governor’s spokesperson. “Governor Polis has been open about the sad reality that the state can’t make up for the funding that President Trump and Republicans are taking away from Coloradans. The Governor has previously indicated we may need to reconvene the General Assembly to deal with the terrible impacts from the bill, and we are still reviewing the impacts of this new law to evaluate next steps, including a potential special session.”
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State Rep. Shannon Bird, a Westminster Democrat and the vice chair of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, said the state is in a bind, special session or not.
“I'm very worried, very worried for our state and people,” said Bird. “A special session is possible. I will say, though, that in the absence of having the federal dollars come back to Colorado to pay for Medicaid and to pay for SNAP, our state is not in a position to fund these services and backfill the cuts that will have to be made.”
Colorado House Republicans said Medicaid isn’t being cut.
“Medicaid isn’t being cut—coverage is being refocused on seniors, kids, single moms & people with disabilities,” the caucus said in a social media post. “The only people losing coverage are illegal immigrants & able-bodied adults who refuse to work. This bill doubles rural health funding, cuts taxes on overtime/tips, protects Social Security, unleashes American energy, and keeps Trump tax cuts in place—saving Colorado families thousands.”
Fox said claims that the bill doesn’t cut Medicaid are misleading. He said it’ll only be a matter of time before Coloradans feel the pain, unless lawmakers can somehow find a way to avoid the cuts, which, at the moment, seems impossible.
“And if we don't find some alternative approaches, it's going to mean cuts,” said Fox. “There's no avoiding that.”
