Andrew Kerr writes for the Washington Free Beacon about an inconvenient fact for Colorado progressives.
A Colorado program launched in 2025 to provide taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrant “pregnant persons” and children is costing seven times more than expected. The program, which was estimated to cost less than $15 million but has ballooned in costs to nearly $105 million this fiscal year, has emerged as a sore spot as the state grapples with a $1.5 billion budget shortfall that could lead to deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs for citizens.
Two of the Democrats who supported the program in the Colorado legislature are now seeking a promotion to the House of Representatives.
Democratic lawmakers, including former state representative Shannon Bird, one of the candidates vying to represent Colorado’s Eighth Congressional District, passed a law in 2022 to create the Cover All Coloradans program. It provides state-funded health care for “pregnant persons” and children who would qualify for Medicaid if they weren’t illegal immigrants. Fiscal analysts estimated at the time that the program would draw 3,700 enrollees at a cost of $14.7 million to the state.
But the illegal immigrant population in Colorado spiked as the law passed, rising from 160,000 in 2021 to more than 200,000 in 2025, according to the Pew Research Center. Costs for the Cover All Coloradans program increased sixfold to $104.5 million to Colorado taxpayers after 28,000 immigrants enrolled in the program when it launched in 2025, the Colorado Sun reported.
The program—a direct response in blue Colorado to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration—was funded by the 2025 statewide appropriations bill, a measure supported by Bird and her top Democratic challenger for the congressional seat, state representative Manny Rutinel, who joined the state legislature in 2023.
The rising cost of the program comes at an inopportune time for Democrats in Denver. The Colorado constitution requires lawmakers pass a balanced budget every year, and on Tuesday, the Colorado Joint Budget Committee voted to institute a 2 percent cut to Medicaid health care providers in a move expected to save the state $95 million.
