With drop in Medicaid-covered patients, Colorado safety-net clinics seek help from lawmakers

Over the last 18 months, the nonprofit Jefferson Center for Mental Health has seen a 50% increase in patients without insurance. They’re people who still need and receive care — only now, the nonprofit center has 75 fewer workers to provide it.

The behavioral health center, like health care providers across the state, has felt the financial strain of more than 500,000 Coloradans losing Medicaid coverage following the end of the COVID-19 public emergency. The so-called unwind hasn’t just cost those individuals vital health care coverage — it’s cut off the flow of federal money that many such safety-net clinics rely on to care for the state’s most vulnerable residents.