The recession is driving more people than ever to seek state assistance with health care in Colorado, reports Tim Hoover in the Denver Post. The state saw a 14 percent spike in Medicaid enrollment in the budget year that ended in June, a “record-setting rate that capped a year with the largest-ever number of people in the health insurance program.” In June alone, there were 80,000 more Coloradans on Medicaid than the previous month. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s residents are now enrolled in Medicaid, which covers low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly and disabled.
State officials say they are seeing a pattern of unemployed people laid off from good jobs who have never sought state assistance before being driven to seek assistance from Medicaid and other programs in order to get health insurance for themselves or their children.
