DENVER – The good news is thousands more people in Southwest Colorado have health insurance today than two years ago.
The bad news is that many more people in the region are spending a significant part of their take-home pay on medical costs, even though they are insured.
One in 5 people in Southwest Colorado is underinsured – defined as spending more than a tenth of their take-home pay on health-care costs, even though they have insurance. That number is up from 11.4 percent two years ago, according to the biannual Colorado Health Access Survey.
At the same time, the rate of people in the region lacking any insurance dipped by eight points to 15.2 percent. Put another way, more than 14,000 people in the Four Corners lacked insurance this year, compared to nearly 23,000 two years ago.
Statewide, the rate of uninsured Coloradans dropped slightly over the last two years, from 15.8 percent to 14.3 percent. That makes intuitive sense because the economy is recovering and more people are getting jobs, said Michelle Lueck, president of the Colorado Health Institute, which conducted the survey.
Still, an estimated 740,000 of Colorado’s 5 million residents lack health insurance.
The survey found stark disparities, with black, Hispanic, rural and urban people more likely to lack insurance than whites and suburbanites.
Ned Calonge, president of The Colorado Trust, which paid for the survey, said the results are troubling for a society that prides itself on equal opportunity.
“We have to come to grips with the fact that fair and equal opportunities to be healthy just isn’t what we have in Colorado,” Calonge said.
The survey was released the same week that word got out that insurance companies are cancelling coverage for 250,000 Coloradans. President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act disallows policies that don’t offer a minimum package of benefits. It’s not possible yet to know how many of Colorado’s underinsured people are having their plans canceled.
Southwest Colorado and the Eastern Plains stood out as the two regions with the highest underinsurance rates. Experts at the Colorado Health Institute did not know why the numbers were so high in La Plata, Montezuma, Archuleta, San Juan and Dolores counties, but they suspected that a tourist economy with many seasonal jobs could partially explain the reason.
The quality of insurance matters not just to people’s bank accounts, but to their health, according to the survey.
Overall, 8 out of 10 people in Southwest Colorado said they are in good to excellent health. But among the region’s underinsured, only 7 out of 10 could say the same thing.
The survey also found people in the Four Corners were slightly more likely than the average Coloradan to report poor mental, dental and overall health.
Despite widely reported problems with doctor shortages in Southwest Colorado, the proportion of regional residents with a usual source of medical care was exactly the same as the state average – 83.1 percent. But more people in the region made an expensive visit to the emergency room than the state average.
The Colorado Health Access Survey polled more than 10,000 Coloradans between April and July, before the troubled launch of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance shopping websites. It is the most detailed source of data on Coloradans’ insurance and access to health care.
The next survey, due in 2015, should be able to measure insurance rates from this year’s baseline to see how well the Affordable Care Act is working.
Calonge said the botched launch of the insurance websites is discouraging.
“I would hope that by the next time the CHAS is administered, we’ve got it fixed and the numbers are going in the right direction,” Calonge said.
jhanel@durangoherald.com
To your health
Percentage of people who say they are in good to excellent health:
Southwest Colorado
2009: 84.4 percent
2011: 87 percent
2013: 82 percent
Statewide
2009: 87 percent
2011: 84.7 percent
2013: 86.9 percent
Source: Colorado Health Access Survey
