Of the Colorado Medicaid adults who received opioid-addiction medication in 2021, 85% were covered through Medicaid expansion, KFF data show, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Jeff Hurd of Colorado's 3rd District voted for on July 3, 2025, puts that coverage behind a work requirement that starts by January 1, 2027. Substance use disorders and disabling mental disorders count as exemptions under the law, though under a rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, anyone the state's records do not already show must prove it.
Hurd's yes votes decided the February and April 2025 budget resolutions, which set an $880 billion savings target for Medicaid's House committee. The law that followed, which Hurd voted for on July 3, 2025, pulls $12.4 billion in federal Medicaid funding from Colorado over a decade, money that pays for counseling, detox and addiction medication.
Jeff Hurd's Votes on Medicaid Coverage for Mental Health and Addiction Care
- Hurd Voted for Work Rules on the Expansion Coverage That 85% of Colorado Medicaid Adults on Opioid-Addiction Medication Relied On. Hurd voted yes on H.R. 1 twice: on May 22, 2025, when the House version won 215 to 214, and on July 3, 2025, when the final version won 218 to 214. Its work requirement excuses people with a substance use disorder, those "with a disabling mental disorder," and people in an addiction treatment program, with states allowed to rely on records they already hold, and the rule targets expansion Medicaid, which KFF calls "the primary coverage pathway for people with mental health or substance use disorders." Because only "disabling" mental disorders qualify, a patient with depression or anxiety that falls short of that bar must log hours if no other exemption fits. The Commonwealth Fund warned that a large share of those cut off "will remain eligible for Medicaid but who did not successfully complete the paperwork." Colorado expanded Medicaid, and expansion covered 83% of the state's 27,256 adult Medicaid enrollees with an opioid use disorder diagnosis in 2021.
- Hurd's Deciding Budget Votes Set an $880 Billion Target for the Medicaid Committee, Straining Colorado's Treatment Funding. The February 25, 2025 budget resolution passed 217 to 215 and its April 10, 2025 final version passed 216 to 214, Hurd voting yes both times; with his vote reversed, each would have deadlocked and died. H.Con.Res. 14 told the committee in charge of Medicaid to "reduce the deficit by not less than $880,000,000,000." KFF cautioned that, with the cuts, "a more tenuous fiscal climate for states may make those gains harder to sustain," meaning the mental health and addiction care states have built through Medicaid, the payer for "over half (56%) of those receiving medication" for opioid use disorder across the country.
What Jeff Hurd's Votes Mean for Coloradans in Addiction and Mental Health Treatment
- 14,541 Colorado Medicaid adults got opioid-addiction medication, 12,359 of them through the expansion coverage the work rule reaches by January 2027. In 2021 Colorado Medicaid served 27,256 adults diagnosed with opioid addiction, KFF's data show; 14,541 got medication for it, and 12,359 of those, 85%, were expansion enrollees. For someone in recovery, a lapse in coverage can interrupt the daily medication that holds off relapse and overdose.
- 59,500 expansion adults in Colorado's 3rd District face the work requirement. KFF counts 59,500 expansion adults in Colorado's 3rd District in 2025. Patients who fit none of the law's exemptions must start reporting hours, with the rule beginning no later than January 1, 2027, or lose the coverage that pays for their care.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jeff Hurd on Mental health and addiction
What is Jeff Hurd's record on mental health and addiction under Trump?
Jeff Hurd voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, whose work requirement reaches Medicaid expansion adults, the group that made up 85% of Colorado Medicaid adults receiving opioid-addiction medication in 2021, and his votes decided both 2025 budget resolutions behind its $880 billion target for the Medicaid committee. Exemptions cover substance use disorders and treatment programs, but under the CMS rule people must prove them unless state records already show them.
Do Coloradans in recovery lose Medicaid if they cannot meet the work rule Jeff Hurd voted for?
They can. The law Jeff Hurd voted for excuses anyone whose substance use disorder or disabling mental illness qualifies, yet under the CMS rule anyone the state's records do not already flag must prove the exemption, and the Commonwealth Fund expects eligible people to drop off over the paperwork. In Colorado, 22,716 Medicaid adults with an opioid use disorder were expansion enrollees in 2021, all of them in the group the rule covers.
What does the law Jeff Hurd voted for mean for Coloradans leaving jail or prison who need addiction care?
Jeff Hurd voted for a law whose work rule shields people coming out of jail or prison only during their first three months back, after which they must show work hours or lose Medicaid. The danger lasts well past that window: research from 2018 that MindSite News cited found that people leaving prison faced 11 times the overdose death risk of the general population "over the course of a year" after release.
Last updated: 2026-10-27