Significant disparities in health care leave Hispanic Coloradans among the lowest performing health care systems compared to other races and ethnicities in the state.
A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows that Hispanics in the state are more likely than white Coloradans to die from preventable causes, to be uninsured or to seek medical care due to cost. They are more likely to forego vaccinations and less likely to be fully vaccinated as children.
The new report focuses on national data from 2021 and 2022, examining 25 indicators of the performance of state health systems across the country. This list focuses on health outcomes, access to health care, quality and utilization of health care services for Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders . The report examined data from all 50 states and assigned a “score” to each group.
Hispanic Coloradans scored in the 33rd percentile nationally for health system performance, the lowest of any other race and ethnicity in Colorado.
“It's not a surprise to me,” said Dr. Ricardo González Fischer, manager of Ventanilla de Salud, Servicios de la Raza's program.
Over the past 20 years, Hispanic Coloradans have seen significant improvements in overall cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and infant mortality rates, to name a few. But Gonzalez-Fisher said there are still significant gaps.
“Even though we've improved over the last 20 years, we're still below the national average and the Colorado average,” he said. “We've improved. Just imagine what we were like before.”
Since 2001, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has tracked and published data on health disparities.
Health disparities among different races and ethnic groups have existed for a very long time and impact multiple areas of health, including chronic diseases, infectious diseases, injuries, and child health indicators. According to CDPHE, these disparities can be partly explained by differences in social opportunities and socio-economic factors such as access to education and health care.
For example, patients in the CU Hispanic Transplant Program, part of UCHealth, are more likely to receive Medicaid, have less than a high school education, and live in low-income areas, said Dr. Sixto Giusti Torres. said. program director.
“I think we still haven't addressed the root causes and social issues from the beginning. So we're trying to make sure that these people get a better education and continue their education after high school, and we're still not addressing the root causes and social issues in the community at large. “We are trying to make sure that we improve access to health care that is not widespread,” he said. “From our perspective, we've seen dramatic improvements with the implementation of the Hispanic transplant program itself, but that's only a small part or a subset of the overall health care system.”
Like CDPHE, over the past two decades the Commonwealth Fund has tracked health and health care in states and consistently found large racial and ethnic disparities in health, well-being, and life expectancy.
For example, blacks, American Indians, and Alaska Natives have shorter life expectancies than whites and Hispanics. They are more likely to die from treatable diseases, more likely to suffer from serious pregnancy-related complications, and have an increased risk of many chronic diseases, from diabetes to high blood pressure.
Black Coloradans fared only slightly better than Hispanics, ranking in the 38th percentile for overall health system performance.
Black Coloradoans rank worse than average on health care quality, indicators such as regular testing and vaccinations. For example, 76 percent of black adult women had a mammogram, compared to 84 percent nationally, and 61 percent of adults were screened for colon cancer, compared with 65 percent nationally. .
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp decline in life expectancy compared to whites since 2020, making matters worse for Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives in particular.
In Colorado, overall life expectancy decreased by two years, from 80.9 years in 2019 to 78.9 years in 2020. Life expectancy decreased by 2.5 years for Hispanics, 3.9 years for blacks, 5 years for Asian/Pacific Islanders, and 5 years for Americans. The average expected rate for Indian/Alaska Natives decreased by 2.9 years. In contrast, white Coloradans experienced a smaller-than-average decline of 1.4 years.
The report found that in several southwestern and mountainous states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas, Hispanics are dying earlier, and Hispanic mortality rates are higher than those of whites. That's higher than other parts of the U.S. nearby.
Although the situation for Hispanic Coloradans is worse compared to other groups within Colorado, overall health care system performance for Hispanic Coloradans is better than average when compared to other states. That goes for Black people, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and white Coloradans. Data were lacking for American Indian and Alaska Native Coloradans.
