Five years of high unemployment have driven another 216,000 Coloradans into such dire straits that they qualify for Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor.
That jump – to a total of 608,000 people in major financial trouble – has cost Colorado’s budget an extra $1.4 billion since 2007. The continuing rise in the cost of Medicaid is the main reason the governor proposed cutting school funding again this year.
