By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon A sharp drop in employers who offer health insurance and Colorados ailing economy have led to a dramatic surge in the number of Coloradans who are either uninsured or underinsured. The Colorado Health Access Survey, a new report from The Colorado Trust and the Colorado Health Institute, has found that more than 1.5 million Coloradans or nearly one in three residents either have no health insurance or are underinsured, meaning they spend more than 10 percent of their income on out-of-pocket medical expenses. The number of Coloradans getting their insurance through employers dropped to 57.8 percent…
Category: Health and Wellness - Part 14
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon More than 5,200 people are on a waiting list to receive primary care through Denver Health, and across Colorado at least 20,000 more low-income patients are waiting to receive care. In Denver, the waiting list at the citys safety net health system began in 2008 when the economy started its freefall. At its peak, Denver Health had 7,200 patients on its waiting list. About 80 percent of those waiting for care in Denver have no health insurance while the rest have either Medicaid, Medicare or private health insurance. The reality is that there are more patients…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon WESTMINSTER Exam room No. 1 at Westminster Medical Clinic is a striking departure from the classic, sterile rooms in a typical doctors office. The walls are pale lavender. Soft light from a lamp washes over a plush couch and easy chair. Candles and a CD player sit on a bookshelf next to wellness and self-help books along with the bible of the American Psychiatric Association, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Yet, this oasis is a place within the walls of a busy primary care practice where doctors can lead a patient, giving them…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The young sisters come to the doctors office proudly carrying pink and purple water bottles clinking with ice and etched with the logo that says Get Fit. The medical assistant checks their height, weight and blood pressure, then walks Gabby, 9, and Laila, 6, into the exam room past a medical tray. There are no vials with shots or medical tools. Instead, the tray is filled with shiny red apples, the first sign that this is a very different kind of doctors appointment. Welcome to cutting-edge care in the escalating war on child obesity. The girls…
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon AURORA The dinner plates at the Veleasquez home were as colorful as a Cezanne painting. On this Saturday evening, the family was dining on pink grilled salmon, baked purple potatoes, yellow Colorado sweet corn and a mlange of steamed vegetables: carrots, green beans and cauliflower. Dessert was bright orange sweet potatoes, fresh from the grill. There was no butter sauce or sour cream to drench on anything. Instead green limes garnished each plate and Karla, 8, was squeezing them on her purple potato to add extra zest. This kind of healthy, nutrient-packed meal is the norm…
By Myung Oak Kim As a 20-year-old college student, Emma Carpenter faces a dilemma common among young women: how to access and pay for birth control. The Denver native gets oral contraceptives, through the health clinic on the University of Colorado Boulder campus where she is entering her senior year. Emmas pills initially cost her $50 a month, so she switched to a cheaper pill, which carries more side effects, but costs only $20 a month. Emma says she considers herself fortunate to have the awareness and the financial means to regularly use contraception. One of her friends cant afford…
Student bloggers and live video streaming via the Internet will expand the reach of the sold-out Colorado Health Symposium, which runs Wednesday through Friday at the Keystone Conference Center. The agenda includes debates and discussions on health policy at both the national and regional levels. Live streaming of the forums will be broadcast via Ustream. Symposium Universityis designed to extend the content from the seminar into the classroom. Seven student bloggers will provide information throughout the three-day event. Comments are encouraged via Facebook and Twitter.
By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon A former board president and negotiator of the original hospital sale that created the Colorado Health Foundation is warning that the foundation could lose control of $1.45 billion in profits from its current proposed sale of seven hospitals and should cancel the deal. Dick Anderson, who was chairman of the joint venture board that ran the hospitals from 1995 to 2000, filed comments with Colorados attorney general on Thursday. He believes that the original intent of the deal was to protect community assets, not to serve as an investment engine for the Colorado Health Foundation. Anderson…
By Myung Oak Kim Concierge service. Jacuzzi tubs. Bacon-wrapped scallops or New York strip steak prepared by professionally-trained chefs and brought to your room. These amenities can be found at most new hospitals in Colorado and across the country. Gone are the days of sterile, white hallways, fluorescent lights and cloth curtains separating patients in the same room. The newest hospitals offer bountiful natural light, warm-colored walls and floors, soothing art and private patient rooms with large windows and relaxation videos. Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree features fireplaces on every floor. Childrens Hospital Colorado in Aurora offers video…
By Diane Carman A study released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundationreaffirmed Colorados ranking as the leanest state in the nation, but found that Coloradans are caught up in the same ominous trend toward obesity that is occurring across the country and much of the world. Were the leanest, but were moving in the wrong direction, said James O. Hill, director of the University of Colorado School of Medicines Center for Human Nutrition. Clearly were getting fatter. The report, entitled F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens Americas Future, found that Mississippi had the highest obesity rate in the…