Category: Public Health Issues - Part 25

Teen marijuana use spikes along with expulsions, arrests

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon of Solutions and Nancy Mitchell of Education News Colorado A handful of students from Denvers East High School recently spent a warm January lunch period huddled against a brick home two blocks from the school, passing a joint and discussing the merits of medical marijuana. It smells better than what you get on the street, they say, and is more potent. The buds are whole, not ground up like oregano. I get top shelf, boasts a 16-year-old boy. My cousin works at a dispensary. So he brings maybe two zips (plastic bags) a day that theyre…

Senate committee votes to restore Medicaid funds for circumcision

By Diane Carman Despite the spirited testimony of seven opponents to routine circumcision, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Thursday voted 6 to 3 to restore Medicaid funding for the procedure. A change in the long bill, the budget document developed by the Joint Budget Committee, dropped funding for the procedure last year, making Colorado one of 18 states to defund circumcision under Medicaid. Senate Bill 90, introduced by Sen. Joyce Foster, D-Denver, would restore the funding, estimated at $186,500 annually. Foster told the committee that the bill was about disease prevention, fairness and social justice. More important, she…

High-flying X Games stunts under scrutiny

By Diane Carman Roy Leckonby grew up ski-racing in the Northeast and joined the ski team when he came to the University of Colorado as a student in the 1990s. “I remember on that first day of training at Eldora, looking up at the mountains of the Indian Peaks Wilderness and thinking that I could be up there skiing in all that powder instead of doing the same run all day,” he said. What followed was a decade-long, adrenaline-fueled, sometimes insanely wild ride to the very edge of the sport’s limits. Leckonby survived. Barely. With the X Games beginning in…

State identifies Colorado’s 10 winnable public health battles

By Sasha Dillavou Goals from injury prevention to reducing unintended pregnancies are among the 10 Winnable Battles, identified Tuesday by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Many public health and environmental health agencies at the local level already have embraced certain of these battles where they will be focusing some of their efforts in the next few years, said Chris Urbina, executive director and chief medical officer for the Department of Public Health and the Environment. In addition, we are working with our counterparts at the Colorado Department of Human Services and the Colorado Department of Health Care…

University Hospital, med school poised for expansion

By Diane Carman When the Colorado Springs City Council voted 9 to 0 last weekto endorse a proposed lease agreement between the University of Colorado Hospital and city-owned Memorial Health System, it moved the Rocky Mountain region one step closer to a tectonic change in the landscape of health care. If Colorado Springs voters approve the plan, the University of Colorado Hospital (which is affiliated with the university, but is an independent legal and financial entity) will assume administration of the nonprofit Memorial Hospital. That would be one more step in the long-term drive to expand the University of Colorado…

Clarity on health law expected from high court

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an unprecedented five hours of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act early next year and should rule by next summer in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign. Colorado is one of 25 states that have joined Florida and the National Federation of Independent Business in challenging the Affordable Care Act. The justices could invalidate the most controversial part of the law, the individual mandate, which requires all individuals to buy health insurance. Legal scholars and lower court judges have opposing views on whether the individual…

Uninsured rate jumps as Colorado employers cut health benefits

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…

Opinion: We can’t afford to turn our backs on victims of mental illness

By Lacey Berumen As a special committee of Congress takes on the important mission of reducing our countrys federal deficit, we must not lose sight of the need to protect some of our nations most vulnerable citizens those suffering from mental illness. Congress understandably will have to make some tough choices, but it also must set priorities. On the heels of Mental Illness Awareness Week, observed earlier this month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Colorado is imploring Congress to oppose cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that could imperil the estimated 195,000 Coloradans living with mental illness. This special…

Poor patients stuck on waiting lists

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…

Health and wellness center breaking new ground in obesity treatment

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon AURORA — Colorado is aiming to become the “Silicon Valley for obesity research” with the opening of a new health and wellness center at the Anschutz medical campus on April 1. Now under construction, the center will combine multiple functions in one building: state-of-the-art research, education, patient care facilities and a high-end fitness center. The concept is to unite cutting-edge science with direct patient intervention. “We think we will set a new standard. We’ve put things together in a seamless way from discovery of research to taking that research out and impacting people’s lives,” said Dr….