Colorado’s uninsured fee — the proportion of individuals with out well being care protection — hit an all-time low this yr, however federal coverage adjustments imply it’s unclear whether or not that success can final.
The uninsured fee dropped in 2023 to 4.6%, down from 6.6% when it was final measured in 2021. The figures come from the every-other-year Colorado Well being Entry Survey, administered by the Colorado Well being Institute, a nonpartisan well being coverage assume tank. The survey polled 10,000 households and is broadly seen because the gold commonplace for monitoring adjustments in insurance coverage protection in Colorado.
“This was a statistically vital lower that we discovered,” CHI director of analysis and analysis Jeff Bontrager stated Friday when saying the findings on the institute’s annual Scorching Points in Well being convention.
Regardless of the excellent news statewide, Colorado’s uninsured fee remained larger in mountain resort communities. The well being statistics area that features Summit, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin and Garfield counties had an estimated uninsured fee of 12%. That’s up from 10% within the 2021 survey.
The rise in protection statewide was pushed by a surge within the variety of individuals lined by Medicaid, the joint state-federal program that mostly serves individuals from low-income households. In 2019, simply earlier than the COVID pandemic hit, Medicaid lined about 18.7% of individuals in Colorado. By 2021, that proportion had risen to 24.8%. For 2023, CHI discovered the proportion is now a good 30% — three out of each 10 individuals within the state.
However this pattern could not final. Through the worst months of the pandemic, the federal authorities instructed states to not drop anybody from Medicaid protection. This resulted in swelling Medicaid populations throughout the nation. In Colorado, the variety of individuals lined by Medicaid topped 1.7 million.
Because the pandemic eased, the federal authorities ended this security internet and advised states they needed to start doing eligibility redeterminations. Officers in Colorado estimated that as many as 325,000 individuals could lose Medicaid protection in a wave of redeterminations that started this spring and can proceed into subsequent yr. These of us must discover new protection.
Bontrager stated the 2023 survey knowledge — gathered between March and August — seemingly don’t replicate the impacts of this redetermination course of. Which means it’s unclear whether or not the record-low uninsured fee is a one-time blip.
“It’s unknown at this level how many individuals will proceed to remain lined and the way many individuals will change into uninsured within the state,” he stated.
The rise in individuals lined by Medicaid coincided with a lower within the proportion of people that purchased insurance coverage on their very own. In 2023, an estimated 4.9% of Coloradans bought protection with out assist from an employer, down from 6.3% in 2021. The share of people that obtained employer-sponsored protection held largely regular, at slightly below 50%. About 10.5% of individuals had been lined by Medicare.
The Colorado Well being Institute expects to launch extra detailed analyses of its findings within the coming months.
