Missy Anderson stepped out of the shade and into the building heat of another day in one of Denver’s hottest summers on record. Anderson is an injury prevention coordinator at Denver Health, meaning she works to deter the kinds of accidents and events that often land people in the hospital. On this July day, that […]
Colorado Health Institute
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Why fixing Colorado’s health care system is becoming more about housing and less about insurance
For years, Colorado lawmakers have worked relentlessly to reform the state’s health care system. But that work has often focused on just one narrow area: health insurance. From expanding access to Medicaid, to setting up a state health insurance exchange, to engineering a complicated reinsurance program to creating the Colorado Option, a government-designed health plan, […]
Posted inCOVID, Health
The rate of people in Colorado with health insurance held steady during the pandemic
The past 19 months, Colorado’s health care system has seen unprecedented convulsion — a pandemic, hospitals filling up with coronavirus patients, doctor’s offices emptying due to patients putting off treatment, untold numbers of people losing their jobs and the health coverage that goes with it. But amazingly, according to a new survey, one thing held […]
Posted inHealth, News
Colorado’s low-income patients can’t find specialty health care, study shows
Longmont’s Hopelight Medical Clinic handles all the usual primary care ailments that low-income and uninsured patients bring to a safety net health practice: strep throat, stitches, dental cavities, anxiety. Hopelight also regularly sees an urgent need to address much bigger problems, including one patient’s schizophrenia. But referrals and appointments for specialty care such as cardiology […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
On Colorado’s Front Range, your neighborhood may determine your risk of catching COVID-19
Consider, for a moment, two neighborhoods in Denver: Platt Park and Westwood. Both are in the southern half of the city, separated by a two-mile drive along Mississippi Avenue over the railroad tracks. Both are home to lots of young families. And both, of course, are 16 months into weathering the coronavirus pandemic. But, according […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
New Colorado health insurance subsidies open as search for people eligible but not enrolled ramps up
The number of Coloradans eligible for public health insurance aid but not actually enrolled in a program was rising quickly before the pandemic hit last year, though social service officials said expanded eligibility launching Thursday could help reverse the trend. The American Rescue Plan signed in March keeps enrollment in the state health insurance exchange […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
When coronavirus attacked Colorado’s health, it changed the state’s health system forever
In Hugo, population 707, where the dominant view is of the water tower, hospital officials with empty beds during the pandemic offered their place as a high-quality respite for city folks on the long road back from the devastating coronavirus. One woman from Greeley, who before the virus took her down couldn’t put Lincoln County […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Polis must enact a COVID-19 vaccination plan for Colorado’s hard-hit prisons
Gov. Jared Polis isn’t listening. So far he’s refusing to implement widespread vaccine distribution in prisons in phases 1b or 2 of Colorado’s distribution schedule — despite prisons being one of the settings hardest hit by COVID-19 in the state. There’s a consensus among many experts that people in prison should be prioritized for vaccination […]
Posted inCOVID, Crime and Courts, News
More than half of Colorado’s prison population has likely been infected with coronavirus, report says
Likely more than half of the people held in Colorado prisons have been infected with the coronavirus, one of several astonishing numbers included in a report released Thursday that calls for incarcerated and detained individuals to be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccine. The report comes from the Colorado Health Institute — a nonpartisan health policy […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Health, Politics and Government
Coloradans already struggling to afford housing say coronavirus has made their situation worse
Elizabeth Zacarias and her husband owned their own mobile home for 10 years, renting a slice of property in the Denver Meadows RV Park in Aurora. Amid a battle over whether the owner could close the park for redevelopment, rent went up periodically. In one year, rent increased three times, Zacarias said, in Spanish through […]