DENVER • Gov. Bill Ritter and the legislators who set the state’s budget gathered Thursday to publicly endorse new legislation that they said would extend coverage to about 100,000 Coloradans who currently lack health insurance.

The proposed Colorado Healthcare Affordability Act “will responsibly make significant progress toward reducing the number of uninsured citizens, and it will slow the rate of growth in health care costs,” Ritter said at a news conference at the Denver Health Medical Center.

The bill would assess a “provider fee” on hospitals. Steven Summer, chairman of the Colorado Hospital Association, said that the fee formula was still being computed, but that the goal was to raise $600 million a year. The state is eligible for federal matching funds, and the resulting $1.2 billion fund would be used to expand the pool of those eligible for Medicaid and the Child Health Plan.

Medicaid eligibility would be set at 100 percent of the federal poverty level, currently about $22,000 for a family of four. CHP would be offered to children and pregnant women from families earning up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level.

The fund would also improve hospital reimbursement rates for service provided to current Medicaid patients and those served by the Colorado Indigent Care Program.

The Colorado Hospital Association, whose 90 members are struggling with the cost of uncompensated care for the poor, supports the plan.

“Annually, Colorado hospitals incur more than $375 million in uncompensated costs by serving Medicaid patients because they receive less than 55 percent of total costs for treating Coloradans in need,” Summer said. The bill would increase that ratio to about 75 percent, he said.

Summer said that if the bill passes, hospitals could stop passing along their uncompensated costs to insured patients.

The bill also has the blessing of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, which sets the state budget each year. Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, committee chairwoman, said more than 40 states have implemented this type of strategy for health programs, including more than 20 states that have hospital provider fees.

Ritter said the state should act now and not wait for the Obama administration’s plans for a national universal health care system.

“If at the end of the day they restructure health care provision in America, it’s going to be a few years off,” the governor said.

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