Residents of Montezuma County have a lot of health care options, but there are serious challenges and gaps in care coverage in the area as well.
That was the message at a recent health forum put on by the Colorado Health Foundation at the Axis Health Clinic in Cortez.
Twenty local health professionals joined the conversation, organized as part of a statewide tour to assess health services in southern Colorado.
“Rural areas face unique health challenges that are more nuanced,” said Karen McNeal-Miller, CEO of the foundation, which offers grants for improving rural health care. “Community discussion can help make connections, target problems and find solutions.”
Ample outdoor recreation, the Cortez Recreation Center, city parks, social services, youth programs, health department programs, and Southwest Memorial Hospital were all listed as health benefits for the community.
Tough health problems are also prevalent, and are borne out by local health statistics, with poverty as a driving factor.
For example, 19.1 percent of Montezuma County residents (population 26,785) live in poverty compared with 12.9 percent statewide, according to the 2015 Colorado Health Report Card.
The county has an average hourly wage of $15.98, which is 40.3 percent lower than the Colorado average of $26.78 per hour.
The unemployment rate is 5.3 percent compared with the statewide rate of 4.3 percent.
Higher education is a good health-insurance policy, McNeal-Miller said, because it leads to better salaries and benefits.
However, Montezuma County has a 63.2 percent high school graduation rate, lower that the statewide rate of 77.3 percent.
Having health insurance makes a difference in individual health.
People with coverage get more preventative care, are healthier, and have more financial security when they do need treatment.
In the county, 11.1 percent don’t have health insurance, compared with the statewide rate of 6.7 percent.
Between 2013 and 2015 the drop in uninsured in the county was 27 percent, compared with 53.1 percent statewide.
On the plus side, the report states that residents who use the emergency room for health care is down, going to 3.7 percent in 2015 compared with 8.1 percent in 2013.
