New Map Atlas Provides Picture of Colorado’s Uninsured
We hope you’ve seen the Colorado Health Institute’s new publication analyzing Colorado’s uninsured population, our first entirely map-based report.
“The Colorado Eligibility Atlas: Mapping the Uninsured” profiles uninsured Coloradans in a series of 17 maps by characteristics such as education, primary language and employment. Understanding how uninsured Coloradans differ across the state is important as Colorado begins to think about targeted outreach and enrollment strategies for the next open enrollment period. You can view the report here and read a blog on the data here. For the data behind the maps, visit our data repository.
Health Insurance and High Prices: A Proposed Solution, a blog posted by Senior Director for Policy and Analysis Amy Downs, focuses on the decision facing the Division of Insurance about whether to change the geographic rating areas used to set insurance premium prices. Amy’s blog includes some important analysis on what is driving the high costs in the mountain areas.
A second blog from last week – Marijuana and Cost Containment Top Health Policy Themes in Session by CHI’s Director of Legislative Services Megan Lane – summarizes the key health themes from this year’s legislative session. Among them: Cost containment is big, health reform is still top of mind and Colorado continues to blaze the trail on marijuana policy.
This week, CHI hosts a meeting of the Safety Net Advisory Committee (SNAC) learning lab. In recognition of Mental Health Month, the meeting will focus on behavioral health integration. The meeting, led by Senior Analyst Anna Vigran and Director of Research on Coverage and Access Jeff Bontrager, will cover how behavioral health integration is being implemented in Colorado and what lessons can be learned. We will post the presentation following the meeting, but until then you can view presentations from past SNAC labs here.
Later this week, we will have a new 2013 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS) Survey Snapshot on medical bills from Jeff Bontrager. You can view our collection of CHAS related publications here.
Early next week, Senior Director of Communications Deborah Goeken and our CEO Michele Lueck will travel to New Orleans for the National Network of Public Health Institute’s (NNPHI) 13th annual conference. The theme – Leading Change Through Innovative Solutions – will focus on how public health institutes can play a role in improving population health through new approaches. Michele will co-deliver a presentation with Maya Pack from the South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health titled “Developing Non-Partisan Health Policy Education Programs for Policy Makers.” You can follow along with the conference on Twitter using #NNPHIac14.