(1) The general assembly finds that many parents in Colorado who have experienced challenging circumstances because their children have significant mental health needs and who have attempted to care for their children or seek services on their behalf often are burdened with the excessive financial and personal costs of providing such care. Private insurance companies may not cover mental health services and rarely cover residential mental health treatment services; those that do seldom cover a sufficient percentage of the expense to make such mental health treatment a viable option for many families in need. The result is that many families do not have the ability to obtain the mental health services that they feel their children desperately need. The general assembly finds that it is in the best interests of these families and the citizens of the state to encourage the preservation of family units by making mental health treatment available to these children pursuant to article 67 of title 27, C.R.S.

(2) In order to make mental health treatment available, it is the intent of the general assembly that each medicaid-eligible child who is diagnosed as a person with a mental health disorder, as that term is defined in section 27-65-102 (11.5), must receive mental health treatment, which may include in-home family mental health treatment, other family preservation services, residential treatment, or any post-residential follow-up services, that must be paid for through federal medicaid funding.