MEDIA STATEMENT
April 28, 2025
Health Care Advocates, Including CO Leader, Discuss the State of Health Care After 100 Days of President Trump
DENVER – This morning on a national call led by Families USA, health care advocates, including Mannat Singh, the Executive Director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, broke down what President Trump’s administration has done for our nation’s health care system as we approach the 100th day of his second term. After an election season filled with promises of lowering costs and making America healthier, the first 100 days have failed to deliver and have instead brought chaos and uncertainty to our health care system, making it more difficult and expensive for families and individuals to get the care they need.
Excerpts from Mannat Singh’s statement:
The first 100 days of the Trump presidency have brought a barrage of consistent and constant chaos. These first 100 days are a clear and present threat to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
Colorado expanded Medicaid, created our own state-based marketplace, and cut our uninsured rate in half. More than 1.4 million Coloradans (22% of our state’s population) now get their healthcare through Medicaid – approximately 500,000 of whom are covered through Medicaid expansion. These are children, seniors, people with disabilities, and working families earning low wages. These are politically disadvantaged groups, who are perceived as less powerful and thus less valuable – and that’s really what these first 100 days are about: wielding power by taking from the people and giving to the ultra-wealthy. These first 100 days are about dismantling the foundations of healthcare progress to finance tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
The threats to these programs are real. Proposals to cut Medicaid funding would shift enormous costs to our state and result in fewer people covered, reduced access to care, and devastating consequences for rural communities and communities of color. Proposed cuts to Medicaid Expansion alone would mean CO loses $1 billion a year, and roughly 500,000 Coloradans lose coverage. Many hospitals, clinics, and providers, especially in rural areas, would be at extreme risk of closing. This is a strategic choice on the part of the administration.
On the marketplace side, the administration’s actions are just as damaging. Advanced premium tax credits – APTCs – are what make health coverage affordable for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans who don’t qualify for Medicaid. Colorado has seen record increases in enrollment in recent years, adding roughly 100,000 Coloradans since 2020. The biggest gains in enrollment have been in rural areas because of EPTCs. Enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of this year, and Coloradans currently receiving financial assistance will see an average 50% increase in their out-of-pocket premium costs, and rural areas will see a 70% average increase on January 1, 2026. Undermining or failing to fully fund these tax credits means working families get priced out of coverage.
Broadly, these first 100 days will result in economic fallout and higher costs for everyone. For every $1 million lost from the federal government, Colorado loses $2.22 million in economic activity, 13,000 jobs, and $825,000 in added household earnings.
The administration’s actions (from attempts to repeal the ACA to quiet regulatory changes) are dismantling everything advocates here in Colorado and across the country have been working and building towards. People are left confused, worried, and at risk of losing the care they depend on.
The crisis and chaos that the first 100 days have caused is a deliberate dismantling of essential healthcare infrastructure, to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. Politicians and the current administration are working for themselves, not for the American people.
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