Colorado’s Medicaid system has an accountability problem—and asking questions should not cost people their seat at the table.
Community members asked reasonable questions about the money, the outcomes, and the accountability.
The advisory council was supposed to provide a meaningful voice for members and families navigating Medicaid, long-term services and supports, and home- and community-based services. Its elimination raises serious questions:
- How can Colorado evaluate its case-management system if basic financial and performance questions cannot be answered clearly?
- Why eliminate an entire advisory council after its members ask for accountability?
- What protections ensure that “stakeholder engagement” is more than a compliance exercise?
- How can Colorado responsibly consider expanding government control of healthcare when its existing system is already this difficult to understand and oversee?
As Colorado debates proposals that could move us closer to a single-payer healthcare model, we should be paying very close attention to how the state manages the authority it already has.
A complicated system should invite more transparency—not less.
People with disabilities, families, caregivers, and community advocates are not obstacles to effective government. We are an essential part of the accountability structure.
If removing the people asking questions becomes easier than answering them, Colorado has a much bigger problem than poor communication.
What are you seeing in Colorado’s Medicaid and healthcare systems? Are advisory councils producing meaningful accountability—or merely checking a box?