Boulder County’s uninsured rate remains low, thanks to the Affordable Care Act and local efforts to enroll low-income residents in publicly funded health programs. However, enrollment in Medicaid and Colorado’s Child Health Plan Plus was off about 10% from its highest point in 2017.
Family insurance premiums have nearly tripled since 2000 -- a major driver in the national debate over the government’s role in securing health care coverage for all.
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Enrollment in Medicaid and CHP+ has tapered down after a sharp run-up as the Affordable Care Act was implemented.
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One in four children is overweight or obese in Boulder County and across the state.
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Latino and low-income Boulder County residents generally rank their personal health lower than non-Hispanic whites and more wealthy residents. When it comes to mental health however, Latinos, low-income residents, and men report fewer poor mental health days than others.
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Boulder County adults are taking care of themselves better than the state average, in a variety of ways. However, despite our national reputation for fitness, 47 percent of county residents are overweight or obese.
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LGBQ high school students at BVSD continue to face higher rates of attempting suicide and feeling sad and hopeless than their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Decades of research has shown that the effects of discrimination and adverse environments are what lead to the large health disparities for LGBQ teens, and Boulder County is no exception.
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Overall crime offenses in Boulder County have remained constant for the last five years. It is important to note that in 2013, the FBI UCR Program removed the word “forcible” from the definition of rape. The broader definition of rape accounts for the increase in the number of reported cases from 2012 to 2013.
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Although hate crime incidents remain low in number, they did increase in Boulder County by 33%.
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Charged cases of Domestic Violence have remained fairly steady in recent years. Meanwhile, charged of Child Abuse related to those cases increased dramatically since 2014.
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Teen birth rates have decreased drastically in Boulder County and across the state, thanks to a comprehensive push to address the issue. Births to Latina teens have also declined significantly; however, they still make up a larger percentage of teen births than births to Anglo teen moms here.
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Colorado one of the nation’s top ten suicide rates. Boulder County’s suicide rate is slightly better than Colorado’s, but still far worse than the national average.
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Death rates due to drug poisoning have spiked nationally, and have risen steadily in Colorado in recent years. However, Boulder County’s drug-related deaths have thankfully stayed relatively flat.
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Vaccination rates for both Boulder County school districts are on the low end of what’s called herd immunity, the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to prevent a disease from becoming endemic.
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Despite the legalization of marijuana, alcohol remains the top choice for BVSD teens to try before age 13.
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LGBTQ teens are twice as likely to say they’ve been bullied than their straight peers in BVSD.
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In Boulder County and the state of Colorado, infant mortality rates (the number of infant deaths for every 1,000 live births) are low. Colorado is among one of the states with the lowest infant mortality rates in the country.
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Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, there are significantly more people covered by health insurance in Boulder County in 2017 than there were in 2010, especially in underrepresented communities.
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Access to mental health care in Boulder County is better than in many parts of the state, but it still falls short of the need in the community. Almost 20 percent of the population in the county experienced eight or more days of poor mental health in the last month.
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Almost half of the teens in BVSD have vaped (used electronic cigarettes). Only 51 percent of young people perceive vaping to be risky, while 88 percent of youth perceive cigarettes to be risky.
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