The six lawmakers tasked with writing Colorado’s budget have an excruciating job this year — they must find about $1.5 billion in savings to keep the budget in balance, and understand that many of their cuts will have direct, human consequences. That’s because the state's Medicaid program, which provides health coverage to low-income Coloradans, accounts for a significant part of Colorado’s budget, and costs have ballooned in recent years.

CPR’s Bente Birkeland, The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul and The Denver Post’s Seth Klamann discuss what’s driving rising Medicaid costs for the state, where lawmakers are looking for savings and what this all means for Colorado residents. 

Catch up on the latest coverage:

• The Colorado Sun: Colorado’s state budget shortfall grows to more than $1.5 billion, forcing legislature to make much deeper cuts
• CPR News: Impact of state budget cuts gets real as lawmakers start trimming Medicaid programs
• The Colorado Sun: Providing health care to immigrants who are children or pregnant is costing Colorado 611% more than expected
• The Denver Post: As Medicaid costs rise, should Colorado charge fees on large employers that don’t insure all workers?
• The Denver Post: Flawed analysis caused Colorado Medicaid program’s costs to surge and made it ‘attractive’ to fraud
• CPR News: Medicaid recipients, advocates furious over state mistake that’s costing tens of millions of dollars
• The Colorado Sun: Legislature mulls ballot measure that would ask voters to raise TABOR cap by billions primarily to fund Colorado’s schools

Purplish is produced by CPR News and the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Purplish’s producer is Stephanie Wolf. Sound design and engineering by Shane Rumsey. The theme music is by Brad Turner. Megan Verlee is the executive producer. Additional reporting for this episode from CPR’s John Daley and The Colorado Sun’s John Ingold and Erica Breunlin.