The 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey shows that the poor economy has made carrying health-care coverage increasingly difficult. The most recent survey shows 829,000 state residents are uninsured, a 22.3 percent rise from two years ago.

“That’s 151,000 additional Coloradans who are uninsured. That would be as if the entire city of Grand Junction lost health insurance all at once,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, president of The Colorado Trust, which funded the survey. “That’s a remarkable increase and it’s a serious issue.”

In Region 9, which includes La Plata, Montezuma, Dolores, Archuleta and San Juan counties, the number of uninsured rose 33.7 percent, from 16,400 in 2009 to 21,922 in 2011.

In the same period, the percentage of people in the region who regularly turn to hospital emergency rooms for routine care rose from 11.9 percent to 16.8 percent, an increase of 41.5 percent.

“The overview provided by the report reflects what is happening in La Plata County,” Mercy Regional Medical Center CEO Kirk Dignum said Friday. “It’s what we’re seeing here at Mercy.”

Lack of insurance and the shortage of primary-care doctors in La Plata County force residents into the emergency room when they need help, Dignum said. A routine medical matter, without attention, escalates to the crisis stage.

“We’re a safety net,” Dignum said.

Mercy recently had two indigent people in its intensive-care unit for two months until networks of family, friends and care providers could be woven to care for them, Dignum said.

“The ICU wasn’t the appropriate place for them,” Dignum said. “But in our fragmented system, we couldn’t find a nursing home or rehab center to take them.”

In a telephone interview with The Durango Herald, Calonge said that an increase in health-insurance premiums at the same time the sour economy threw people out of work made insurance less aff ordable.

A vicious cycle develops when hospitals, Mercy included, which see many uninsured patients, seek more compensation for other services. The insurance companies increase premiums as a result.

The recent survey included more than 10,000 Colorado households that were interviewed between May 10 and Aug. 14. Results were released Tuesday. The Colorado Trust has agreed to fund the survey every other year until 2017.

The number of underinsured Colorado residents – those who spend more than 10 percent of their income on health-care expenses because their coverage doesn’t adequately cover those costs – has risen from 650,000 to 675,000. Combined, the number of uninsured and underinsured Coloradans totaled 1.5 million people, or nearly one-third of the state’s estimated 5 million residents.

Lack of insurance varied greatly by region.

“A lot of differences have to do with the kinds of employers and jobs available to people throughout the state,” said Michele Lueck, president and CEO of Colorado Health Institute, which conducted the survey.

The Western Slope and resort communities, home of seasonal jobs and tourism-based businesses, reported the highest percentages of uninsured rates statewide. Rural communities in northern Colorado and the Eastern Plains also had higher numbers of uninsured residents.

Increasingly typical is Celestia Pratt of Colorado Springs.

“I don’t have any health insurance,” said Pratt, who was interviewed at a recent 9Health Fair, where she was getting routine blood tests. “I couldn’t afford $700 a month. It’s really expensive as you age.”

The survey found that the leading barrier to gaining sufficient coverage is the high cost of health insurance, with 85 percent of respondents citing cost as a major obstacle. A lack of employer-provided coverage also was a factor, with 41 percent of respondents reporting that a family member was either not offered coverage or was considered ineligible for coverage. The percentage of residents with employer-provided coverage declined from 64 percent to 58 percent over the last two years.

Younger residents and poor populations are more likely to be uninsured than their older and higher-income counterparts. And while the majority of uninsured Coloradans are white, 33 percent of Hispanics are uninsured, although they make up 20 percent of the state’s population.

Children up to 18 years old were the only group to remain fairly stable in terms of insurance – something Lueck attributed to state efforts to enroll more eligible kids in Medicaid and the Child Health Plus Program.

Colorado Public News, a nonprofit news organization, reports on statewide issues. It partners with Colorado Public Television 12, Denver’s independent PBS station.