Colorado's tab for Medicaid expansion could be hundreds of millions in first few years?

Colorado's tab for the pivotal Medicaid expansion in health-care reform could
be hundreds of millions of dollars in the first few years, worrying Republicans
and testing analysts' aid models.

"To me, it's not an issue of 'Can we expand?'; it's 'Can we afford what we've
got?' " said state Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen, chairwoman of the
legislature's Joint Budget Committee.

Boosting Medicaid rolls and subsidizing others through the health-insurance
exchange are the two mainstays of expanding insurance coverage envisioned by the
2010 U.S. Affordable Care Act.

But the Supreme Court's upholding of the act last week also gave states room
to reject the Medicaid expansion by saying federal officials couldn't threaten
to pull current aid for those that rejected new growth.