Be On The Record
BlogSign inSubscribe
HearingsBillsAlerts
← Hearings

Joint Health

Wednesday, January 28, 2026·3h 36m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Joint Health Committee convened a full-day budget and policy hearing dominated by Colorado's structural Medicaid deficit, with JBC members warning there is no path out of the $220 million HCPF general fund reduction without cuts to providers, benefits, or eligibility, while committee members challenged proposed cuts to senior dental grants, provider rates, and IDD waiver enrollments and pressed HICPUF on audit failures, ABA therapy fraud risk, and the use of the supplemental budget process for new programs.

Key Actions

·Governor's FY2027 Budget Overview – Joint Rule 25 PresentationFailed

+ 11 more actions

Controversies

Use of the supplemental budget process for the HICPUF/DHS centralization and redistricting proposal

Sen. Mullica argued 'supplemental is for something that's already been existing. It's for a change that was in the system,' characterizing the centralization proposal as a completely new program. Ms. Dson maintained that 'the S12, which is a supplemental component, did not add or make any changes to that. That is just the mechanism by which we asked for the resources that we need this year to begin the process,' stating the full proposal was published with the regular budget request on October 31st. Sen. Amabile separately raised the same concern, stating 'the supplemental process has always been about existing programs,' and Rep. Sirota acknowledged it was 'a great question that yes we are grappling with too,' indicating the JBC was unlikely to bring a supplemental on the matter.

+ 4 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“The reality of Medicaid after decades and decades and 50 states running Medicaid programs is there's really only three things that you can do in a Medicaid budget to control cost. You either have to cut the rates that providers are paid, you have to take benefits away from people, or you have to limit the number of people who can be on Medicaid. None of those things are good options. And this budget includes a little bit of all of those things.”

Representative Kyle Brown — Rep. Brown was responding to Rep. Bradley's criticism that the governor's budget attacks providers, explaining the structural constraints facing the JBC in addressing a Medicaid general fund deficit.

+ 3 more quotes

Unlock the full summary

Subscribe to see all key actions, controversies, quotes, and what's next.

Sign in to subscribe
TranscriptPreview
Joint Senate Health and Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Barlon. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. Good morning. Right. Excused. Carson. Excused. Cutter. Present. Doherty. Excused. English. Here. Faray. Excused. Frizzell. Excused. Amric. Here. Judah. Here. Johnson. Here. Leader. Present. McCormick. Here. Michaels and Gene. Present. Joint Senate Health Human Services Committee will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Barlon. Present. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. Good morning, English. What do we do? Wait a second. Excused. Frazelle. Excused. Amric. Here. Judah. Here. Johnson. Here. Leader. Present. Cormac. Here. Michaels and Gerdae. Present. Joint Senate Health Human Services Committee. Order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Polon. Present. Excused. Bradfield, Bradley. I'm still here, right, English? Yeah, I know. You did write in, huh, Stuart? Oh, we haven't started. Yeah, we're still new. Excused. Weissman. Excused. Woog. Here. Gilchrist. Present. Mr. Chair. Malika. Here. Let the record reflect Representative Baron is with us, seeing no one else. We do have JBC members here with us who would like to start us off. Representative Sirota. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, Joint Health. I believe this is…
Continue reading

Subscribe to unlock the full transcript, summary, and search across all Colorado committee hearings.

Sign in to subscribe