Colorado did not offer Medicaid coverage to residents living in the country without legal status such as Henao, or to immigrants in the mandatory five-year waiting period after receiving their green cards. Without coverage, Henao couldn’t get a proper checkup, he said, let alone a diagnosis or treatment for his stomach pain.That changed at the beginning of this month, when Henao received care through Colorado’s OmniSalud program, which provides health care coverage to low-income immigrants in the country without documentation. When the program started accepting enrollments in 2022 it covered 10,000 people without requiring them to pay premiums, and this year Colorado expanded the number of zero-premium slots to 11,000. Colorado is one of a growing number of Democratic-dominated states that are extending health care coverage to a limited number of immigrants who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible for public insurance because of their legal status. California, Oregon and Washington state also offer health care coverage to people of all ages who have incomes below a certain level, regardless of their immigration status. Minnesota will do so starting in 2025.