By Gretchen Hammer, Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved
This month, All Kids Covered released Crossing the Finish Line: Achieving Meaningful Health Care Coverage and Access for All Children in Colorado. The report provides an update on the current status of meaningful health care coverage and access for children in Colorado, and describes the significant progress we have made to make sure that all our children can get the health coverage and health care services they need.
The good news is that roughly 90% of kids in Colorado have health insurance and between 2008 – 2010 over 40,000 children gained coverage. In addition, the most recent Colorado Health Access survey reports that most of children in Colorado have a usual source of care – a place where they regularly go to get their health care.
Cue the Kool and the Gang music, start the disco ball and break out your best dance moves! Let’s take a moment to celebrate these great accomplishments.
As with any great success, many people have contributed to this progress. Over the last five years, state policymakers, state and local agencies, community leaders, health care providers, advocates and private foundations have worked together with a common goal and concerted effort to achieve these milestones.
While recognizing and celebrating success is important, there is still more work to be done. Much of that growth in coverage has come through higher enrollment in Medicaid and CHP+, resulting from policy changes to improve public programs and unfortunately, economic hardships facing many Colorado families which make them eligible for these programs.
Additionally, the most recent estimates suggest that between 112,200 (8.2%) and 124,128 (10.1%) children in Colorado still do not have health insurance. And, access to care varies across the state. While fewer than 5% of children in the metro area, the Eastern Plains and Northwest Colorado report they do not have a usual source of care, nearly 1 in 13 children (7.6%) in Southwest Colorado do not have a usual source of care. And that’s too many!
It is not too much to ask that all of Colorado’s kids have access to they health care they need, when they need it. To build on the strong momentum of the last few years we need to focus on five key strategies that we believe will continue the progress in Colorado and would likely be useful in other states, as well:
– Leadership and Accountability
– Coverage and Access for All Children
– Systems and Practices for Maximizing Enrollment and Retention
– Messaging and Communications
– Regional Adaptation
Check out the report for more details on these strategies and examples of how to implement them from Colorado and across the country.
Colorado is 90% of the way there to crossing the finish line and covering all kids. It is going to take all of us working together to ensure that our children will have the health coverage and health care services they need to have healthy and fulfilling lives. And, once we get there, we can really get the party started!
To access the full report, visit www.allkidscoveredcolorado.org/report.pdf
