Colorado Advocates for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Political advocacy for Colorado’s most vulnerable residents
Mission-focused Activities
Staying abreast of HCPF policy activity
Colorado’s Department of Health Care and Policy and Financing (HCPF) is constantly revising policies and guidelines. COAAIDD monitors HCPF activities closely to help decode and keep track of important changes for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waiver participants
Create resources and engage policy makers
COAAIDD created a white paper outlining the negative impacts looming from proposed state budget cuts and have lobbied HCPF and state senate officials to provide alternate solutions
Political advocacy for positive change
2026 is an important election year in Colorado. COAAIDD members are actively engaged with state and federal candidates for elected office and will provide endorsement guidance for candidates that best align with our mission
About Us
A little bit about our origin story…
Our organization was born in January 2025. A group of parents, guardians, and other family members of adults with IDD in Colorado informally organized to lobby federal and state legislators to protect Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Waivers for Medicaid. After the Spring 2025-2026 budget session for the Colorado legislature, we thought we were successful and began to focus on the Spring of 2026. In the interim, HR 1 was enacted into federal law and our Governor made deep cuts to HCBS Medicaid programs with his August 28, 2025 and October 31, 2025 Executive Orders.
We began to meet again to discuss a path forward to advocate for our adults – who cannot advocate for themselves. Governor Polis, through the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (“HCPF”), Colorado’s chief Medicaid financing agency, proposed further deep and significant cuts to HCBS that threaten the ability of our adults to live in the community. Many of us are aging caregivers to our adults who are trying to transition to the next stage of life, and these cuts could easily harm our efforts to find a safe place for our family members to thrive in the community.
What became apparent to us early in the process was that HCPF is broken and is not working to serve its members. HCPF elects to cut services first, instead of bureaucratic regulations and processes that cost the taxpayers millions of dollars a year. They often provide justifications for their actions that mislead taxpayers, legislators and even stakeholders about the reason for, or the effect of, their changes. HCPF has also blown past guardrails designed to protect the most vulnerable.
Our focus is on advocacy at the federal and state levels to protect and preserve HCBS Adult Waivers for individuals with IDD in Colorado. We also seek to reform the regulatory process and agencies in Colorado to make systems work for adults with IDD and to support their right to live in the community.
“Cut Costs, Not Care”
Read our white paper regarding DD waiver cuts, or find a one-page summary here.