On Nov. 2, 2026, Gov. Polis publicly released his proposed 2027 fiscal year state budget. His budget proposes to eliminate the Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit and the Low-Income Senior Dental Program. No decision or change has been made to either program yet.
The budget recommendations for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) include a complete elimination of the Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit (with exceptions only for emergency care). If this elimination is enacted, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans would lose access to critical dental care, including over 230,000 adult Medicaid recipients who utilized dental benefits in state fiscal year 2025.
Tomorrow morning, the CDA will meet with representatives from HCPF on this matter.
The budget recommendations also propose to eliminate the Senior Dental Program (a benefit for low-income seniors that provides access to dental care to individuals aged 60 and over who are not eligible for dental services under any other dental healthcare program, such as Colorado’s Medicaid Program.) This program provided dental care to over 4,600 older adults in state fiscal year 2025.
Each year in early November, the Governor of Colorado must submit state budget recommendations to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, and those budget recommendations must reflect a balanced budget, required by the Colorado constitution.
This is only the beginning of the state budget process and these are budget recommendations at this time, not final decisions.
Based on current budget projections, the state is looking at a budget deficit of half a billion dollars or more for the Medicaid program alone due to increasing state costs of the Medicaid program, TABOR state funding and spending limitations, and declining federal funding for Medicaid passed by U.S. Congress and signed by the president in 2025 (H.R. 1).
These recommendations are alarming and the CDA is closely tracking this situation. The legislature’s Joint Budget Committee will review and vote on recommendations over the next several months.
Many factors will still impact the state budget including state ballot measures that will be determined in tomorrow’s election. Of important note, these are recommendations from our sitting governor, however, Colorado will see a new governor elected tomorrow, and the next governor will determine whether he wants to pursue the same agenda.
The CDA is always actively involved in state budget discussions each year, especially in matters that impact Medicaid recipients and Medicaid dental providers across Colorado. We will continue to advocate on the importance of oral health and dental care, and keep CDA members updated on state budget discussions and decisions impacting access to dental care for Coloradans.
