Look around Boulder County and you’ll be struck by the number of active people: cyclists with sponsorships, people who bike to work and shower there, runners, climbers and everyday people walking on miles of Open Space trails.
But until the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a different reality lingered behind these lifestyle-magazine worthy tableaus. A sizeable number of folks, including nearly 30 percent of the county’s Latinos, did not have health insurance.
With ACA implementation, health care coverage for lowerincome groups more than doubled, although Latinos and those without a high school education still lagged behind. As of 2014, a stellar 98 percent of children were insured.
However, as with adults, the future of health insurance for children was politically uncertain in mid-2017. Not only the ACA, but Medicaid itself, which covers people below the poverty line, were on shaky ground in Washington. Even the very popular ACA mandate that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions was potentially on the chopping block.
In March 2017, all three Boulder County commissioners wrote to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner urging him to vote to continue funding Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion.
“In Boulder County, Medicaid is the cornerstone of our safety net,” wrote Commissioners Deb Gardner, Cindy Domenico and Elise Jones. “Although Boulder County is considered affluent, many of our residents are not and have been living without health coverage.”
Even as those affected by potential cuts continue to be apprehensive, much of the county and Colorado is healthy, as measured against the rest of the nation. The state has the lowest obesity rate nationally, and 88 percent of Boulder County residents ranked their health good to excellent.
Statistics largely back up their evaluation: Boulder County has lower death rates than the national average from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and pneumonia. Another bright spot is that poor 40 year-olds here are likely to live 2.2 years longer – to 81.6 years, than their impoverished U.S. counterparts, according to data in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mental health ratings are also largely positive. Nearly twothirds of those surveyed said they had no poor mental health days a month.
Yet, some dark clouds loom. Nearly a quarter of Colorado children are obese, and fewer Latinos rate their health as good to excellent. Poverty also takes a toll. About one-fifth of those making $25,000 a year or less reported eight or more poor mental health days in a month, almost twice the number in the general population.
In addition, the suicide rate in Boulder County is higher than the national average and higher yet in Colorado than it is in the country as a whole. Suicide is the 7th leading cause of death in Boulder County compared with 10th nationally. For reasons that aren’t clear, nine western states – Montana, Alaska, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and South Dakota – consistently have higher suicide rates than the rest of the country.
