Category: Public Health Issues - Part 14

Solutions, health champions honored

Colorados community health centers serve one-third of Colorados neediest patients through 17 health systems around the state, providing essential primary care in 57 of Colorados 64 counties. On Tuesday, the groups association, the Colorado Community Health Network, handed out their 2013 Community Health Champion awards. Solutions was honored for covering underserved people and putting a human face on health care. Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, a writer for www.HealthPolicySolutions.org, won the media award. (McCrimmons) in-depth reporting illuminates issues that often receive only limited coverage in other news media. Her writing is thoughtful and informative, said Donald Moore, CEO of the Pueblo Community…

Opinion: Churning isnât just for butter anymore

By Donna Smith It isnt often that I learn a new word in the health care system discussion, but this week I did. Churning. I was at a meeting here in Colorado where I have taken on a new role in advocating and administering for a publicly financed, universal, single-payer system with Health Care for All Colorado.And the definition of churning I learned is a sad commentary on a system that still allows access to care based on inequality of coverage that leaves so many people suffering and tens of thousands dying in America every year. Churning is the policy…

Medicaid expansion a ‘no-brainer’: hike in GDP and new jobs by 2015

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Expanding Medicaid to an estimated 275,000 additional people will cost Colorado less than the price of not adding them. That’s the bold prediction from a new study of Medicaid expansion commissioned by the Colorado Health Foundation, which supports expansion, and conducted by seasoned legislative budget analyst Charlie Brown and a team of economists. Brown and his team found that expanding Medicaid would essentially be a stimulus program for Colorado because so many millions of federal dollars would flow into the state to pay for the new patients’ care. Federal taxes will pay 100 percent of the…

Health exchange will tap brokers but won’t pay them

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Health insurance brokers will get referrals and be able to sell plans to individual and business clients of Colorado’s new health exchange. But they won’t earn money directly from the exchange and won’t have to abide by a strict conflict of interest policy that Colorado’s exchange board passed Monday to govern new “health guides.” Instead, insurance companies will continue to pay commissions to brokers as they currently do. And Colorado’s Division of Insurance will continue to license and monitor brokers. It’s unclear how an estimated 150,000 Colorado exchange customers, many of whom will be low-income people who never…

New Medicaid estimate: a billion dollar bargain?

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Expanding Medicaid would cost Colorado about $1 billion over 10 years and add an estimated 240,000 to the state’s Medicaid rolls, including as many as 73,000 people who could switch from private to public health insurance, according to a new cost-benefit analysis from the Colorado Health Institute (CHI). http://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/ The Colorado Trust commissioned the study. Dr. Ned Calonge, president and CEO of The Trust, urged lawmakers to consider the profound impact that Medicaid expansion could have on the health of Coloradans as they ponder financial costs and benefits. Using other studies as a basis, Calonge estimated that expanding…

Medicaid patients struggle to access dental care

By Jeffrey A. Roberts I-News Network When she was 3, Torrie Smith tripped on an uneven sidewalk, fell face down onto some steps and broke four front teeth. An emergency room doctor stopped the bleeding and gave her something for the pain, but Torrie didn’t get to a dentist for six months – her first time ever to a dentist – because her parents didn’t have dental insurance and didn’t have cash to pay for an examination. Now 4, Torrie’s dental problems are so severe she has to go to an operating room, not a dentist’s chair, to have them fixed….

Less money for health, more for preschool

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon Spend less on health care and much more on preschool. Thats the prescription that an international expert on health disparities gave Thursday in Denver to help reverse inequities that leave low-income racial and ethnic minorities much sicker and facing shorter life expectancies than wealthier whites. Health care should get less (funding) and education should get more, said Dr. Paula Braveman. Early childhood development should get the lions share. Having a strong social safety net would make health indicators look a lot better. Braveman is director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University…

Better care grounds Medicaid frequent flyers

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon FORT COLLINS Roger Mondragon visited the ER 22 times in two years, but still felt lousy and neglected. It was the only place I knew to go, said Mondragon, 22. When Im in pain, Im stressed. Im frustrated and angry. Developmentally delayed and suffering from several ailments including kidney disease, severe back pain, migraines and respiratory problems, Mondragon used to dial an ambulance whenever his anxiety or pain escalated. In a single month, he says he called an ambulance eight times. Born with a fractured disk and severe asthma, Mondragon spent the first few months of…

Health disparities in Colorado huge, persistent, complex

By Kevin Vaughan I-News Network Lucero Barrios is Latina and a new mother circumstances that place her squarely in a group of people affected by a shocking reality in Colorado: A Hispanic baby born in this state is 63 percent more likely than a white baby to die in the first year of life. And Latinos arent alone the disparity is even more stark for Colorados African Americans, who experience an infant mortality rate three times that of Caucasians. The gap in theinfant mortality rate is just one measurement by which the states largest groups of ethnic and racial minorities…

Opinion: Rural Colorado to benefit from health care policy changes

By Joe Sammen Infographic by Sarah Mapes As the Colorado Legislature began its 69thsession earlier this month, issues affecting rural Coloradans were at the forefront. A number of legislators expressed their commitment to working to find solutions around familiar rural concerns, including scarce water resources, protecting agricultural lands and issues around oil and gas production. But perhaps no other political issue will affect rural Colorado in thefuture as much as our changing health care landscape. Gov. John Hickenlooper recently announced Colorados intention to expand Medicaid eligibility in 2014 for our poorest citizens, creating unprecedented access to health insurance in our…