Jared Polis declared Colorado a sanctuary state in 2019 and dared the consequences.
Now those consequences have a price tag: $104 million – and climbing.
Colorado taxpayers are watching their budget collapse in real time, and the man who lit the fuse is still in the governor's mansion.
Democrats Promised It Would Cost $14 Million
In 2022, Colorado Democrats passed Cover All Coloradans on strict party-line votes in both chambers.
The program extended Medicaid-style health coverage to illegal immigrants who would otherwise qualify – but for their immigration status.
State analysts put the cost at $14.7 million.
They were wrong – by 611 percent.
Cover All Coloradans launched January 1, 2025.
In its first six months, costs exceeded projections by $18 million – a 260 percent overrun right out of the gate.
The state now expects the program to cost $104.5 million in the current fiscal year, and $127.4 million the year after that.
"The fiscal note missed pretty badly," Eric Kurtz, a chief legislative budget analyst, told the Joint Budget Committee.
The $1 Billion Hole Democrats Dug for Colorado Taxpayers
Cover All Coloradans didn't blow up in isolation.
It blew up Colorado's entire state budget.
The state is now staring down a $1 billion shortfall – driven directly by the programs Democrats created and couldn't control.
The program was projected to cover roughly 3,700 immigrants in its current fiscal year.
Nearly 28,000 signed up.
The state's Department of Health Care Policy and Financing acknowledged the obvious: "One of the primary drivers in total expenditure in this program has been higher than anticipated, and growing, enrollment."
Without benefit cuts, projections show more than 30,000 people enrolled next year at a cost exceeding $151 million.
This is the sanctuary state model functioning exactly as its critics warned.
Colorado Already Has a Track Record of This
This isn't the first time Colorado Democrats botched an immigration cost estimate.
In 2013, Colorado passed a law letting illegal immigrants obtain driver's licenses.
Analysts projected modest demand.
Applications flooded in, overwhelming the system and forcing an emergency legislative fix.
That was a warning shot Democrats chose to ignore.
State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican on the Joint Budget Committee, wants the program eliminated entirely.
"Just from a fiscal point of view," Kirkmeyer said, "we're better off utilizing our funds in such a way where we pull down that federal dollar" – meaning programs where federal Medicaid matching funds return to the state.
Cover All Coloradans receives no federal match for the children it covers.
Colorado foots that bill alone.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie was both a lead sponsor of the 2022 bill and the state budget writer who approved the spending.
Her explanation when the numbers came in: "There have been unanticipated impacts."
She built it, funded it, and is now surprised it didn't work.
Polis Built the Trap and Left Coloradans Inside It
Jared Polis didn't stumble into this.
He built it layer by layer.
In 2019, he signed the law declaring Colorado a sanctuary state – prohibiting cooperation with ICE.
In 2021, he signed a law barring state employees from sharing immigration status information with federal agents.
In 2023, he signed another law restricting ICE access to public facilities.
Every one of those laws sent a message to illegal immigrants across the country: Colorado is safe, Colorado will protect you, Colorado will take care of you.
And then Democrats passed Cover All Coloradans to make that message concrete.
They projected 3,700 enrollees.
Nearly 28,000 showed up.
New York spent $8 million a day on migrant care at the peak of the border crisis.
Massachusetts burned through $1 billion on emergency shelter – and expected to spend $1.8 billion more.
Colorado Democrats watched those disasters unfold and built their own version anyway.
Polis is term-limited and leaving office.
The billion-dollar shortfall, the exploding Medicaid rolls, and the tab that keeps climbing – that stays behind.
Your tax dollars will be paying for Jared Polis's sanctuary state long after Jared Polis is gone.
Sources:
- Jesse Paul and John Ingold, "Providing Health Care to Immigrants Who Are Children or Pregnant Is Costing Colorado 611% More Than Expected," The Colorado Sun, March 16, 2026.
- Harold Hutchison, "Colorado Blows Up Budget to Give Illegals Pregnancy Care Costing 7x More Than Thought," The Daily Caller, March 18, 2026.
- "Costs Explode for Colorado Program Covering Pregnant Women and Children Living in the U.S. Illegally," Colorado Politics, March 19, 2026.
- "Sanctuary Cities, Border Crisis Costs, and a Rude Awakening for the Left," The Heritage Foundation.
- Jessica Vaughan, Senate Budget Committee Testimony on Sanctuary City Costs, Senator Chuck Grassley Press Release, U.S. Senate.
