The number of Coloradans without health insurance jumped 151,000 from two years ago as the eroding economy undermined state efforts to expand coverage, according to a comprehensive survey on health care access.
The portion who are uninsured jumped from 14 percent of the population to 16 percent since 2008-09, according to the Colorado Health Access Survey by the Colorado Trust and Colorado Health Institute.
Adding in those who are “underinsured,” or paying more than 10 percent of their income for out-of-pocket health services above and beyond insurance premiums, the combined number reaches 1.5 million Coloradans, survey officials said.
Anticipating arguments that the sample exaggerates the problem by counting people who only lose insurance for a few weeks, the survey said 60 percent of the uninsured lacked a policy for a whole year or more.
The tally of more than 10,000 Colorado households, the second effort after a benchmark survey two years ago, should put to rest questions of how large the state’s problem really is, said Dr. Ned Calonge, president of the Colorado Trust.
“We hope we can move beyond arguing about what the problem is” and move toward solutions, Calonge said.
The number of Coloradans without any insurance reached 829,000 this year, up from 678,000 in the 2008-09 survey.
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com; Twitter: @mboothdp
