Colorado Health Access Survey | Colorado Health Institute

Data on Coverage, Access to Care, and Other Health Factors Coming This Fall

Colorado flag painted on the bottom of a beer barrel at a downtown restaurant

Data collection for the Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS) is complete, and CHI is beginning to analyze the results. Since 2009, the CHAS has been the premier source of information on health coverage, access to health care, and the factors that influence health in Colorado. With nine surveys spanning nearly two decades, the CHAS provides a reliable source of information on the health trends and issues affecting our state.

Counteracting a Dearth of Information

With federal agencies no longer collecting certain types of data and some national health databases removed from federal websites, it’s more important than ever to provide credible data to state, local, and community decision-makers.

Watch our website and social media channels for details about our launch event this fall. Join us to hear our initial findings and check back regularly as we release new analyses each month. Explore data from the 2009-2023 surveys with the dashboard below.

Survey History

Ensuring the Future of Health Data in Colorado

If you use data from the CHAS and want to support equitable health data collection in Colorado and its trustworthy, independent analysis, please contact us. Funding for this work is never guaranteed.

The CHAS Data Dashboard

Explore data on a variety of topics from 2009 to 2023 and make comparisons among demographic categories of your choice. Data from the 2025 CHAS will be added to the dashboard this fall.

This dashboard is best viewed on a desktop.

Click here to view the dashboard on a full-width screen.

Colorado’s Essential Health Survey

The CHAS plays a central role in efforts to improve health for everyone in Colorado.

In the past decade, the survey has measured the effects of the Affordable Care Act and identified work left to do to improve access to health care. It has examined social factors such as housing, food access, and discrimination in health care and measured the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023 the CHAS revealed substantial changes in health, health access, and social stressors caused by COVID-19 and pandemic-related policies.

The survey’s large sample size — roughly 10,000 households — allows for statistically significant samples in urban and rural areas and by age, race, and income.

Policymakers, state agencies and local governments use the CHAS to measure access to care in Medicaid and to identify needs in behavioral health. Health systems and providers use it to help understand access to care in the areas they serve. Community-based organizations rely on CHAS data to evaluate local needs and inform their strategic plans and programs. Researchers and journalists use it to track the impact of policy shifts and gain insight into the state’s evolving health needs.

The CHAS Is for You

Data from the 2025 CHAS will be available to anyone who is interested. We invite researchers and other interested parties to use our research file or to reach out with requests for information and data. Contact chas@coloradohealthinstitute.org.

How to Use the Survey

The survey is conducted every other year. CHI publishes the survey data in several formats:

A summary report with graphics and high-level analysis
Spreadsheets with data on all survey questions broken out by demographics
Two-page regional profiles
A research file for academic inquiry

Click on links to each year's survey above to see all the content for each year.

Disaggregating Data from the CHAS

Uncovering populations often hidden in data to tell deeper stories of Colorado communities.

Click to learn more