From the Colorado Health Institute’s Pueblo Insurance Study:
Where there are lower income households and more people over age 65, there will be a higher percentage of the population on Medicare, Medicaid and CHP+, resulting in providers needing to shift more costs to commercial payers. In 2005, Pueblo had 41.7% of its population enrolled in these programs, where only 23.7% of Weld’s population and 22.3% of Denver’s population were similarly enrolled. This may be increasing the costs of commercial health insurance plans in Pueblo.
Thanks to Linda Gorman for the pointer and quote above. See her comments here.
