First Regular Session Sixty-ninth General Assembly STATE OF COLORADO INTRODUCED LLS NO. 13-0723.01 Brita Darling x2241 HOUSE BILL 13-1175 HOUSE SPONSORSHIP DelGrosso, SENATE SPONSORSHIP (None), House Committees Senate Committees Public Health Care & Human Services Appropriations A BILL FOR AN ACT Concerning limiting the expansion of eligibility in the medicaid program until the general fund appropriation to higher education is at least seven hundred forty-seven million dollars. Bill Summary (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted. If this bill passes third reading in the house of introduction, a bill summary that applies to the reengrossed version of this bill will be available at http://www.leg.state.co.us/billsummaries.) The bill limits the expansion of the medicaid program to newly eligible persons until such time as the general fund appropriation to higher education is at least $747,000,000. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado: SECTION 1. In Colorado Revised Statutes, add 25.5-5-201.5 as follows: 25.5-5-201.5. Eligibility for childless adults - suspension relating to higher education appropriations - legislative declaration. (1) This section shall be known and may be cited as the "Education First Act". (2) (a) The general assembly hereby finds that: (I) President Obama signed the federal "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", P.L. 111-148, on March 23, 2010, referred to in this section as the "Affordable Care Act"; (II) The "Affordable Care Act" expands the medicaid program by expanding eligibility for the program to a population that has not historically been eligible for medicaid, specifically persons over eighteen years of age who are childless or without a dependent child in the home, referred to in this section as "newly eligible" persons; (III) In its ruling on an action to enjoin enforcement of the "Affordable Care Act", the United States supreme court held that, due to the unprecedented nature of the eligibility expansion in the "Affordable Care Act" and the large amount of federal funding at risk for states failing to expand the program, the provision permitting a penalty for failure to include the newly eligible population in a state's medicaid program is unconstitutionally coercive; and (IV) To remedy the constitutional violation, states must be given the right to choose whether to participate in the medicaid expansion relating to the newly eligible populations under the "Affordable Care Act". (b) Further, the general assembly finds that: (I) Colorado, along with the rest of the nation, has been experiencing a recession that has significantly impacted the ability of the state to meet all of the needs of its residents; (II) Consequently, the general assembly has been forced to make difficult cuts to the state's general fund appropriation for higher education; (III) For example, in the 2007 general appropriation act, the general fund appropriation to higher education was seven hundred forty-seven million seven hundred seventeen thousand three hundred dollars; (IV) Since 2007, the amount of the general fund appropriation to higher education has decreased dramatically to a low of four hundred twenty-eight million seven hundred sixty-one thousand thirty-three dollars in state fiscal year 2009-10; (V) The continued decline in state funding for higher education is inconsistent with Colorado's obligation to assist its young people in preparing for the modern workforce through access to higher education at an affordable price; (VI) By bringing the general fund appropriation for higher education back to at least the 2007 appropriation level, tuition rates for students may be maintained or even decreased; and (VII) Colorado has a practical and moral obligation to put education first by satisfying preexisting obligations to the state's higher education system before expanding a public entitlement program in a manner that significantly limits the state's available financial resources. (c) Therefore, the general assembly declares that Colorado should put education first by exercising its legal option to limit its expansion of the state's medicaid program to the newly eligible population under the "Affordable Care Act" until such time as the state's economy recovers to the extent that state general fund appropriations for our institutions of higher education are restored, at a minimum, to the level of appropriations that existed in 2007 prior to the devastating recession in Colorado. (3) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 25.5-5-201 (1) (p), a person described in section 25.5-5-201 (1) (p) (I) who was ineligible to receive medical assistance pursuant to this article and articles 4 and 6 of this title under the eligibility criteria in effect on January 1, 2013, shall not become eligible for medical assistance before the general fund appropriation for higher education in the annual general appropriation act enacted by the general assembly is at least seven hundred and forty-seven million dollars. SECTION 2. Safety clause. The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.