We’re looking at our calendars a lot these days at the Colorado Health Institute. We count just 14 days until the election and just 50 days until our annual health policy conference, Hot Issues in Health Care.
Colorado voters will decide the fate of several health policy issues in this year’s election, including such issues as universal health care, an increase in the tobacco tax and aid-in-dying. Dissecting these decisions, coupled with anticipating how a new president may affect the health policy environment and looking forward to the 2017 legislative session in Colorado, will make for a great two days.
Our featured speakers include Sara Kliff, senior editor at Vox.com; Colorado Lt. Governor Donna Lynne; and Patricia A. Gabow, the former CEO of Denver Health. They will each offer their perspective on the health policy climate and the challenges and opportunities it presents for Colorado.
Want more information on the conference? Check out our Hot Issues in Health Care page for more details. If you haven’t already registered, fear not! You can claim your spot online here.
Jeff Bontrager, Director of Research on Coverage and Access, will give a presentations tomorrow to the board of the Mountain Family Health Centers on the proposed amendment related to Aid in Dying.
Our website features a new voter resources page to help Coloradans dive deeper into the policies behind these ballot initiatives. You’ll find the three papers analyzing ColoradoCare (Amendment 69) plus research by Public Interest Fellow Ian Pelto on the tobacco tax. (A reminder: The Colorado Health Institute is nonpartisan and independent. We don’t advocate for or against any ballot initiative.)
Colorado is struggling to move the needle on many measures of sexual health among Colorado’s teens — and in some places, things are getting worse. New data from the 2015 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey show that more high school students say they’ve had sex at least once and the percentage who are currently sexually active is headed higher. More have been forced to have sex against their will and more are having unprotected sex.
The newest interactive dashboard covering sexual health can be found on our website, along with other analyses exploring violence, mental health, tobacco use and bullying among Colorado’s teens.
Who remains uninsured in Colorado and why are they still without health insurance? CHI’s newest report, by Policy Analyst Alexandra Caldwell, asks this question and answers it with data from the 2015 Colorado Health Access Survey (CHAS). The analysis groups the remaining uninsured into five categories: the budget conscious, the life-changers, the skeptical, the rookies and the unsure. Read about these groups and the reasons they lack health insurance on CHI’s website.
Have a great week.