If lawmakers in the U.S. Senate vote to pass new Medicaid requirements recently approved by the House, Sunrise Community Health CEO Mitzi Moran estimates about a quarter of patients in the nonprofit health care system could lose coverage.
“Seven thousand to 14,000 of our patients could fall off Medicaid as a result of these changes,” Moran told U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday. “That’s disastrous for them. While they could still come to us because we offer a sliding fee scale, what happens if they have a hospital visit or if they need to see a specialist?”
Hickenlooper visited the Monfort Family Clinic in Evans on Wednesday to discuss the potential cuts with staff and local members of the health care community.
The U.S. House recently passed a budget reconciliation bill that addresses many aspects of the federal government, but the bill’s new requirements for Medicaid coverage have taken center stage. While proponents have championed the bill as a way to save money by removing undocumented immigrants, people who are enrolled in more than one state and those who don’t meet the part-time work requirement from Medicaid, critics worry it will have disastrous consequences for health care systems.
Sunrise Community Health, which provided care to 43,450 people in 2024, is committed to offering affordable health care to its residents. The nonprofit health care provider positions itself as a one-stop shop for most health care needs and offers a sliding pay scale to better serve those who may be struggling financially.
Though patients would still be able to utilize that sliding pay scale even without Medicaid, Hickenlooper and Moran expressed concerns about how these cuts would still jeopardize the clinic. If Sunrise receives less pay for the care it provides, Moran said it would need to become a very different organization to remain operational.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, right, listens to Sunrise Community Health CEO Mitzi Moran during a tour of the clinic in Evans on Wednesday. (Jim Rydbom/Staff Photographer)These concerns are shared by Northern Colorado Banner Health CEO Alan Qualls, who told Hickenlooper that across their three hospitals, 70% of patients are on Medicare or Medicaid. If the cuts come to pass, Banner Health could lose about $7,000 per Medicaid or Medicare patient.
“If we keep going in this wrong direction, it’s going to become very hard to figure out how to make a margin and keep services open,” Qualls said. “We’ve made so much progress in the last 20 years, especially in addressing medical conditions among the underserved efficiently, and we really are getting close to controlling the costs the best we can. This is going to throw a real wrench in that.”
U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans, whose congressional district includes the Greeley-Evans area, waves off such concerns as fear-mongering. At a news conference Thursday in Denver — joined by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, State Sen. Byron Pelton and State Rep. Carlos Barron — Evans said the new requirements will protect Medicaid by removing fraud and waste surrounding the program.
“This one big beautiful bill actually protects Medicaid by getting 1.4 million illegal immigrants off of Medicaid, by getting 1.2 million people who are not eligible for Medicaid off of Medicaid and preserving the program for the people who need it most,” he said.
Evans described the bill as a win for Colorado, saying it will only affect undocumented immigrants, people who opt not to meet the part-time work requirements and those who aren’t eligible. Additionally, Medicaid spending is expected to increase every year for those who remain on the program, he said.
According to the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, $31 billion in Medicaid was lost due to fraud, accounting for 3% of Medicaid payments nationwide. Additionally, undocumented immigrants are already ineligible for coverage under Medicaid, except in cases of pregnant women in Colorado due to legislation passed by state lawmakers in 2022.
Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board President Natalie Mash on Wednesday told Hickenlooper the new requirements could negatively impact local students. Out of the 23,000 students in District 6, 67% meet the definition of poverty and could utilize the services that Medicaid provides, she said.
“Many students access services that are funded through Medicaid, either through the district or outside of it,” Mash continued. “We are very concerned about how they would receive those critical services if they no longer have access to Medicaid, as well as the overall health impacts for our students.”
These services include reimbursements to District 6 through Medicaid, which are then used to pay the salaries of school nurses and cover the costs of medical supplies and equipment. The district has recently been able to equip every school with defibrillators, Mash highlighted, and one was recently used on a parent during a local basketball game.
Current estimates from the Congressional Budget Office indicate the changes to Medicaid would result in 8.6 million Americans losing coverage, including more than 1 million in Colorado.
“I can’t believe our House members pushed this budget,” Hickenlooper said. “There are four Republican House members from Colorado, and I know they’ve received calls about Medicaid. If all four of our guys voted together, they could’ve stopped it.”
Hickenlooper believes his tour of the Monfort clinic and discussions about the bill’s impacts will help in his fight to stop the bill from being passed in the Senate. However, he is unsure whether it will be sufficient to convince enough senators to push back.
“Most people in Washington are good people,” Hickenlooper said. “Most Republicans I know are there for the right reasons, trying to make the world better. They have a different view of what we should be doing. They just want less taxes, no matter what the consequences are.
“I think if they hear real stories of what this is going to do to hard-working families that we need in our economy, they would change. The Senate surprises me all the time, so we’ll do the best we can.
The Senate will return to the U.S. Capitol on June 2 and is expected to vote on the budget reconciliation bill before the end of June.
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