Colorado, with the country’s second-fastest-aging population, faces a crisis in senior care. Predictably, our intellectually challenged left-wing legislators are poised to make it worse.

The Gazette has long warned that excessive regulation strangles markets, and now it’s strangling our ability to care for the elderly residents who have spent their lives supporting government and younger generations. Our ranking as the country’s sixth-most regulated economy has already driven out young adults and families, unable to afford housing and childcare amid bureaucratic red tape.

It is precisely because the state has priced out young adults and families with children that our average population age is rising so fast. Now, the notoriously ideological nincompoops controlling the legislature are targeting senior living facilities with rules so burdensome that low-income seniors, especially those on Medicaid, may be forced out of Colorado entirely.

The numbers are stark. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports that assisted-living beds dropped from 25,633 to 25,393 between November and April, with a reduction in 205 Medicaid beds. Facilities accepting Medicaid’s $3,750 monthly reimbursement — thousands short of actual costs — face waitlists stretching over two years.

Industry leaders like Francis LeGasse Jr. of Assured Senior Living warn that regulations are “pricing people out of the market,” as quoted by The Sum & Substance, leaving Colorado natives unable to comfortably age in their home state. Janet Cornell of the Colorado Assisted Living Association notes that 2018 rule changes ballooned regulations from 49 to 81 pages, with food safety alone expanding from one to six pages.

Legislators’ latest folly, House Bill 1328, recommends raising direct-care workers’ wages from $17 to $25 by 2028 while increasing Medicaid reimbursements by a paltry 1.6%. Under this pressure, facilities will either cut Medicaid beds or close.

Cornell asks, “If you limit your Medicaid beds, what have you accomplished?” The answer: nothing but hardship for seniors. Meanwhile, House Bill 1213 offers minor relief by easing some regulatory burdens, like scrapping Facilities Guideline Institute reviews for adding beds. But it’s a Band-Aid on a wound caused by years of overreach, including 2018 architectural mandates applied to small homes and a 2022 law hiking fines from $2,000 annually to $10,000 per incident.

The left’s obsession with regulator control – often for the sake of control – is cruel. The state’s 59,000 direct-care workers must grow 27% in a decade to meet demand, yet excessive training requirements and slow inspections deter new facilities.

Small homes, ideal for dementia patients, are hit hardest. As quoted in the Sum & Substance, Broker Vern Harris says operators “can only lose money for so long” before shutting down or dropping Medicaid patients. When beds vanish, low-income seniors face grim fates: burdening families, entering costly skilled-nursing homes, or, in some cases, homelessness.

Everyone agrees that bad actors must be kept out of senior care. High-profile incidents, like a dementia patient who wandered outside a few years ago and froze to death, demand accountability. But blanket overregulation punishes good providers, stifling the innovation and investment needed to serve our aging population. Industry leaders suggest practical fixes: lower licensing costs, pay inspectors per visit, or ditch outdated standards. Instead, left-wing legislators double down on rules that cause harm but create deceptive optics of compassion.

Colorado’s seniors deserve better. Our lawmakers must stop treating regulation as a cure-all and start fostering a market where providers can thrive. If they don’t, the state’s fastest-growing demographic will pay the price – exiled from the place they call home.