Maria Espinoza, an enrollment specialist, talks with patient Monica Borjas at Clinica Family Health on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Adams County. Less than a year into the process of removing Coloradans from Medicaid after the COVID-19 public health emergency, community health centers across the state are struggling to serve an increasing uninsured population, with one resorting to layoffs to offset the drop in revenue.
The combination of losing $6 million per year in Medicaid revenue, or about 8% of its budget, with increasing labor costs meant they had no option other than making cuts, he said.More than 35% of Clinica’s Medicaid-covered patients lost coverage, and only a few have managed to buy other insurance, Smith said. The loss brings their uninsured percentage close to what it was before Medicaid expansion a decade ago, because people who lost coverage still can’t afford insurance, he said.
Other factors include the fact that the state’s unemployment rate is below 3%, and that Denver raised its minimum wage to more than $18, meaning more workers earn too much to qualify, she said. Salud Family Health Centers, which has 13 clinics in the Denver area and on the Eastern Plains, lost about 7% of its $100 million budget after more than a quarter of the Medicaid patients assigned to its centers for their medical home lost their insurance coverage, president and CEO John Santistevan said. At the same time, Salud needs to give raises if it’s going to compete with other health care providers, which will cost another $3 million, he said.
Gene Sobczak, president and CEO of High Plains Community Health Center in Lamar, said revenue in 2024 is about 2% lower than in 2022. The center is the only provider in the area offering dental coverage, so people tend to keep going there, and the Medicaid coverage rate was low even during the public health emergency because people on the Eastern Plains often don’t trust the government, he said.
The center CEOs said they think the state government has tried to keep people insured, but a higher-than-expected number have fallen through the cracks. “In the United States, enrolling in health benefits is hard,” she said. “It’s hard in employer-sponsored . It’s hard in Medicaid.”How Denver Health fell into dire financial straits — and what it would take to resuscitate the city’s safety-net hospitalGun-free zones, more money for higher education and renter protections this week in the Colorado legislature