New guidance from the Trump administration has derailed an effort by Colorado to allow babies and toddlers covered by public health insurance to stay continuously enrolled until they turn 3.<\/p>\n
Colorado had been planning to roll out its continuous coverage initiative on Jan. 1, 2026. But the guidance, which was released earlier this month, now has advocates worried that thousands of young children from low-income families could lose health coverage at a critical time in their development, with downstream effects on schools, hospitals and other institutions.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration guidance<\/a> will affect young children enrolled in Medicaid or Colorado\u2019s Child Health Plan Plus program, or CHP+. Instead of allowing them to stay enrolled in the insurance plans until their third birthday, as Colorado leaders intended, their parents will have to fill out paperwork to reconfirm eligibility every 12 months. If they miss the deadline, skip the paperwork, or their income rises slightly above the government\u2019s low-income threshold, their kids would lose coverage.<\/p>\n During the COVID pandemic, the federal government allowed people on public insurance programs like Medicaid and CHP+ to stay continuously enrolled without having to re-submit paperwork every year. When the pandemic ended, some states, including Colorado, sought federal approval to keep the policy going for certain vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s new guidance signals an end to that era.<\/p>\n The guidance emphasizes \u201cfiscal and program integrity\u201d as the rationale for ending continuous eligibility for some groups. It also comes amid a broad federal push to shrink a variety of safety net programs. The recent budget bill that Trump signed into law will make deep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.<\/p>\n U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who\u2019s running for Colorado governor, cited some of those cuts Tuesday in announcing a federal bill that would provide continuous public health coverage to enrolled children until they turn 6.<\/p>\n \u201cGuaranteed, consistent coverage during a child\u2019s critical stage of development is especially important now, as the Republican \u2018One Big Beautiful Bill\u2019 will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and CHIP, increase barriers to coverage \u2026 and add unnecessary red tape that will lead to people improperly losing their health care,\u201d he said in a press release.<\/p>\n CHIP is a joint federal and state health insurance program for children who don\u2019t qualify for Medicaid. CHP+ is Colorado\u2019s name for CHIP.<\/p>\n With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, Bennet\u2019s proposal may be a nonstarter.<\/p>\n Madi Ashour, director of K-12 education policy for the state advocacy group Colorado Children\u2019s Campaign, said one of the biggest problems with the federal restriction on continuous eligibility for young children is that they\u2019ll miss doctor visits that could uncover developmental problems and route them to important therapies.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a child is dropped for Medicaid coverage during that crucial 0-3 window, they may miss diagnoses or supports for developmental delays,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ashour said Colorado\u2019s continuous coverage initiative for babies and toddlers can be thought of as \u201ca workload reduction effort for kindergarten and elementary teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKids who start preschool or kindergarten with undiagnosed or unaddressed developmental delays are much more likely, obviously, to struggle with early literacy, behavior, or even peer relationships,\u201d she said. \u201cThat may require more intensive and costly interventions later in the school system.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2023 Colorado law<\/a> set the stage for the state\u2019s plan to ensure continuous public health insurance coverage for two groups: young children during the first 36 months of their lives and adults in the first 12 months after release from state prison. The state received permission from the Biden administration in late 2024 to roll out the effort starting in 2026, but that permission needed to be renewed this coming December by the Trump administration. It now appears that won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Marc Williams, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, said in an email that plans underway for the Jan. 1 launch are \u201cbeing urgently pulled back\u201d now.<\/p>\n The department \u201cis analyzing whether it needs to rework legislation and what the fiscal impact may be,\u201d Williams wrote.<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at\/newsletters<\/a><\/p>\n