Some $58 million earmarked for Medicaid instead can be used for other pressing state needs because of declining enrollment in the health-care program for the poor.

Credit an improving economy, but also blame federal registration forms that are so complex, and require such strict documentation of residency, that some families have given up trying to qualify, said Joan Henneberry, new executive director of Health Care Policy and Financing.

"It's a little of both," Henneberry said, explaining why the new projections say 391,000 people will use Medicaid next year, down from earlier projections that 429,000 would use the services.

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, so that while the total savings is $130 million, Colorado's general fund's share of the savings is $58 million.

Gov. Bill Ritter's budget document for 2007-08 called the $58 million a "negative supplemental."

That means the $58 million that had been appropriated but not yet spent for 2007-08 will return to the general fund.

Another $7.7 million earmarked for Medicaid for the mentally ill will be returned to the general fund because of expected decreases in caseload.

The likely beneficiary of the Medicaid savings will be K-12 education, which needs an extra $41 million, primarily because of an enrollment increase of 8,000 students. K-12 education also is expecting lower than anticipated revenues from specific ownership taxes and from its share of money from federal mineral leases, according to Todd Saliman, director of Gov. Ritter's Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

Other states aren't showing the steep decline in caseload seen in Colorado.

Texas and South Dakota had virtually the same caseloads during the most recently reported month as they did a year or two previous, while Nebraska's caseload went up 1 percent, and New Mexico's went down about 2 percent over the past couple years.

Health Care Policy and Financing, which oversees Medicaid for Colorado, had seen three consecutive years of double-digit increases in caseload, Henneberry said.

Former Gov. Bill Owens' administration had forecast a continuing increase, but last June HCPF budget director John Bartholomew noticed that the actual caseload wasn't keeping up with projections.

Colorado's Medicaid caseload

Rolls are dropping due to better economy and frustration with forms.

Year Clients

2002-03 327,000

2003-04 362,000

2004-05 403,000

2005-06 399,000

2006-07 394,000*

2007-08 391,000**

*revised estimate

** estimate, down from original estimate of 429,000Source: Colorado Department Of Health Care Policy And Financing

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729

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