Colorado governor proposes Medicaid expansion

Some 160,000 Colorado adults with low incomes could become eligible for public health care assistance under a plan announced Thursday by Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Hickenlooper’s plan expands Medicaid coverage for adults as called for by President Barack Obama’s federal health care law.

Hickenlooper says the expansion will cost Colorado some $128 million. But he says he has identified cuts and savings to Medicaid to more than pay for the change.

The expansion proposed Thursday would allow single adults earning less than about $15,000 a year to receive Medicaid.