Summer at CHI: Supreme Court Suspense and a Slew of New Surveys

We may be nearing the dog days of summer, but the pace at the Colorado Health Institute remains a healthy jog. Last Thursday’s Supreme Court decision, however, had the CHI team moving at more of a sprint.

In preparation of the King v. Burwell decision, CHI communications expert Joe Hanel worked on two publications – one for a win on the King side and one for a win by Burwell. Of course, in the end, we needed only one of the papers.

A team effort allowed us to publish the brief - King v. Burwell: What’s Next for Colorado After the Supreme Court Ruling? - on Thursday morning shortly after the decision. The brief includes an analysis of the decision along with four questions for Colorado’s policy makers to consider. You can read about what the other paper included in Joe’s blog here.

This week, we will use all of that King v. Burwell energy and momentum to release our latest data set, the Colorado Local Data Workbooks. The workbooks will include county-level data on about the health care workforce and the way every county’s population uses health care. With all of the data in one place, we hope the tool will be used to inform data-driven decision making across the state. Keep a look out for the workbooks later this week.

Two surveys that include Colorado data were released in the past week. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) published its 2014 Early Release of Estimates last week and found that 9.5 percent of Coloradans were uninsured at the time of the interview. The NHIS is conducted by the US Census Bureau and asks about a broad range of health topics through household surveys. The Behavioral Risk Fact Surveillance System (BRFSS) also recently released 2014 data for Colorado. The BRFSS is a state-level survey sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control that monitors lifestyles and behaviors. 

The release of our own survey is drawing nearer. The 2015 Colorado Health Access Survey is out of the field and soon, our analysts will have a chance to dive in to the data. We expect to have the results ready for prime time in early September. Follow us on Twitter @cohealthinst for updates on the launch.