CDPHE's responses to my questions about the 350 Colorado grant. Connect for Health CO's "messaging platform" on healthcare for illegal immigrants (with a "related" bit on Connect's past bad behavior).
An update: CDPHE's responses to my questions about their grant to 350 Colorado.
I posted back at the end of October on CDPHE's Office of Environmental Justice and their grant to the activist group 350 Colorado.
Near the end of that post I mentioned writing some questions to their press person (see screenshot 1 for the questions I sent). I'd not received an answer by posting, but I did get one so I wanted to follow through and update.
The responses I got from their press person are in screenshot 2 attached from my email.
Presented here without any further comment from me save for noting that I made an error in my second question.
I had asked about the use of "tax money" when these grants are not directly funded by taxes. It would have been more appropriate to use the phrase "public money" there.
Government funded health care for those here illegally.
I got the document linked first below from a reader. It is a "messaging platform"** put out by Connect for Health Colorado, a government contractor (see "Related" below) dealing with healthcare coverage for those here illegally.
There is more information in there, but I want to focus in on the benefits provided by the Federal government and State of Colorado.
Screenshot 1 from the messaging platform gives a summary of the three broad categories of benefits that someone here illegally could qualify for. I labeled each according to who can use them and go through each briefly below.
If you're here illegally and not qualifying for any of the benefits below, you can still purchase insurance on a version of the single-payer market. I believe that the market is a different one than for those here legally, but it is a purchased good and not a government benefit.
As a quick aside, I'm okay with this one. We can talk about people being here illegally, but the fact is that they're here. Given that inescapable reality, wouldn't it be wise to make them purchase their own healthcare coverage instead of funding it with public money? It just makes sense to me to be pragmatic about this.
If you are a "Dreamer" (a child of parents who came here illegally--think DACA), starting in November 2024 (quoting the document with link intact) you "... will be newly eligible for health insurance plans and financial help on Connect for Health Colorado as a result of a recently published rule regarding DACA recipient eligibility. Meaning that the Feds changed their rules so that Dreamers could buy their own health insurance as well as get some government aid for it.
This one for me fits philosophically (as well as typographically) between the two other options. I'm not too jazzed about government benes paid to someone here illegally, but Dreamers occupy a bit of a grey area. They are here illegally, but didn't choose that path.
Lastly, we come 'round to one that I do oppose. Due to a Colorado law (see the second link below), starting on Jan 1, 2025 pregnant women here illegally and their children age 0 - 18 who meet certain income criteria, can qualify for government-provided health insurance.
Don't misunderstand me. It's not that I want children or pregnant women suffering without care. It's more that policy like this provides a big incentive to draw people not only to this country illegally, but to this state. That is the exact opposite of what we need right now. On top of that, you have to remember that government-funded anything means more (and more and YET MORE) money from families here that obey the laws and are just trying to get by.
When you hear our state level politicians talk about the immigration system being broken, don't swallow that whole. Remember that the Feds do own some of the problem, but our own state policies are adding to it.
If we didn't make it so easy, if we didn't incentivize it, we wouldn't have as much of it.
**If you don't know what this is, don't feel bad. I didn't either. You can think of it loosely as a memo or a guide. Connect made this document and then gives it to anyone who might have a need or chance to talk to people here illegally about healthcare. It's purpose is to make sure that everyone across the state says the same things about the changes to health coverage, whether they're talking to a family, or, say, a clinic full of doctors and nurses.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bS-cYctgVoz0oYnSnA4FP_rEpxnp8ZsJ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105405937749106967542&rtpof=true&sd=true
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1289
Related:
From the lookback files office: a look back to what Connect For Health Colorado (the authors of the reference above) did back in November 2023.
They're a government contractor and used tax dollars to help do a fundraiser for Democrat/Progressive political group ProgressNow.
I'm old enough to remember when the CEO said he would be "...accountable for his decision."
Maybe that just meant that he'd feel sad for a time. He's sure not done any other actual thing that I'm aware of.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/businesses-in-denver-vote-with-their?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web