Shortages of affordable care access in our community affects everyone including not just the uninsured poor patient but also the non-indigent insured, uninsured and underinsured and results in negative health indicators.50% of all patients, with and without insurance have reported that cost is a barrier to needed care.
We cannot presume patients have access to care they can afford even those with insurance. Over 1.5 million Coloradans are uninsured or underinsured and these numbers are expected to increase as deductibles and unemployment continues to rise (cohealthaccesssurvey.org).Everyday we hear stories of patients’ experiencing access barriers to care due to cost. But the most unfortunate are those patients who forgo needed treatment because of cost and suffer life threatening consequences. At one clinic in Eagle County, a patient, in a single wage earner household, with a high deductible, reported to have refused a needed colonoscopy due to cost after being told she needed to pay $600.00 on the day of service. She was then treated several months later as symptoms progressed and diagnosed with colon cancer.
I must emphasize the importance of prevention for behavioral health issues, not yet mentioned here. Untreated mental health is a major cause of physical health conditions, whether due to lack of treatment or the body's response to the mental state of the individual. Without treating depression, anxiety and other disorders in the primary care setting, individuals become overwhelmed and often wind up in emergency rooms, jails, courts and prisons. The Colorado Dept. of Corrections is today the largest provider of residential mental health services in the state; the Denver county jails is the second largest provider of mental health services in our state. This is a huge cost to the taxpayers and the business community. Every person knows someone in their family or friends/neighborhood who is experiencing a mental health or substance use disorder, yet we do not fund enough preventative care or early intervention care to these individuals before things become so bad the most expensive care options are utilized: emergency rooms and jails. Directing services to our citizens experiencing behavioral health issues is much needed and cannot be over looked. Also, health care provider shortages are evident in behavioral health care, too. We need to encourage more students to enter the psychiatric and counseling fields of health care as well as primary care. With the integration of behavioral health with physical health, treating the whole person is showing great hope, and providers will need to work as a team.
Watch this and then tell me we don't have to worry about the food we feed our children in school. There are so many low cost alternatives (School Meal Solutions - my favorite because they have the best vision and mission of them all) that we'd be daft not to make legislative change to protect the health of our kids. In the long run, we'd be helping ourselves as well by supporting local farmers, keeping our state green, supporting local workforce talent, educating ourselves and our families on how to make better choices, etc. The list goes on and on.
I don't see Behavioural health issues mentioned here and that is distrressing. The Marillac clinic in Grand Junction finds their two most common diagnosis are diabetes and depression. they treat the behavioural and physical health issures together in one visit in order to treat the whole person and achieve a better result. Behavioural Health should always be a consideration in a discussion of health. We need to fund preventive care and early intervention in this area, we all know someone with a substance abuse or mental health issue. And the effect of untreated mental health issues on our criminal justice system is staggering.
Comments (4)
Jill Kovacevich
We cannot presume patients have access to care they can afford even those with insurance. Over 1.5 million Coloradans are uninsured or underinsured and these numbers are expected to increase as deductibles and unemployment continues to rise (cohealthaccesssurvey.org).Everyday we hear stories of patients’ experiencing access barriers to care due to cost. But the most unfortunate are those patients who forgo needed treatment because of cost and suffer life threatening consequences. At one clinic in Eagle County, a patient, in a single wage earner household, with a high deductible, reported to have refused a needed colonoscopy due to cost after being told she needed to pay $600.00 on the day of service. She was then treated several months later as symptoms progressed and diagnosed with colon cancer.
Moe Keller
Tamra Axworthy
Watch this and then tell me we don't have to worry about the food we feed our children in school. There are so many low cost alternatives (School Meal Solutions - my favorite because they have the best vision and mission of them all) that we'd be daft not to make legislative change to protect the health of our kids. In the long run, we'd be helping ourselves as well by supporting local farmers, keeping our state green, supporting local workforce talent, educating ourselves and our families on how to make better choices, etc. The list goes on and on.
Mary Beth Buescher