Colorado could be on the hook for spending close to $700 million more per year by 2023 if the federal government does away with its enhanced contribution to the Medicaid expansion, according to a new report released Tuesday.

The report, from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that Colorado could be one of the states most impacted by the repeal of Medicaid expansion that is proposed in the U.S. House of Representative’s version of the GOP health care bill. That’s because the federal government, which splits the cost for Medicaid with each state individually, contributes a below-average amount of money to pay for all other Medicaid patients in Colorado. Ending the feds’ enhanced contribution to the expansion would mean Colorado would have to pay more than others if it wants to maintain coverage for people who gained it through the expansion.

In a separate report, to be released Wednesday, researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families found that cuts to Medicaid would hit rural areas hardest. Both nationally and in Colorado, the report found, higher percentages of people in small towns and rural communities are covered by Medicaid than in cities.

“Children and families in small towns and rural areas will be disproportionately harmed by cuts to Medicaid,” said Joan Alker, one of the authors of the Georgetown report.

The two studies highlight what’s at stake for Colorado in the ongoing federal health care debate, as Medicaid — the government’s health care program for those in poverty or close to it — is poised for a major overhaul.

House Republicans last month passed the American Health Care Act, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would cut $880 billion from federal Medicaid spending between 2017 and 2026. A big chunk of those savings would come from ending the Medicaid expansion.

The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility to people slightly above the poverty line. For those states that did — including Colorado — the feds paid all the costs of the expansion for the first few years and pledged to cover 90 percent of the costs going forward.

For traditional Medicaid enrollees, states and the federal government split the costs more equitably, with the feds picking up a greater share in states with lower incomes. On average, the federal government pays 57 percent of Medicaid costs across the country, but in Colorado, the split is 50-50.