In a report by the Colorado Health Institute’s Center for the Study of the Safety Net, approximately 12,000 additional low-income Colorado children could be covered by public health insurance starting this year under a new state law passed in 2009. Children in families with incomes up to $55,125 for a family of four are now eligible for coverage under the Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act of 2009 (HB 09-1293) through a CHP+ expansion which went into effect on May 1.

Whether newly eligible families enroll their children in the CHP+ program is a separate but related issue. In 2008, an estimated 176,000 Colorado children did not have health insurance coverage. CHI estimates that of those children, approximately 65 percent—115,000 children—were eligible but not enrolled in the Medicaid and CHP+ programs.

For more information, see the CHI issue brief, Colorado Children’s Health Insurance Status: 2010 Update or contact Jeff Bontrager, program manager, CHI Center for the Study of the Safety Net, at BontragerJ@ColoradoHealthInstitute.org.