A growing number of Coloradans without health insurance are unable to pay their medical bills, according to a new analysis from the Center for Improving Value in Health Care, the nonprofit that administers the state's all-payer claims database. The finding lands as coverage losses accelerate and as hospitals in the state's rural regions absorb an increasing share of the cost.
Kristin Paulson, the center's president and chief executive, said the pattern follows a predictable sequence. People without coverage delay care, then arrive in emergency departments when a manageable problem has become an expensive one. "Especially in our rural areas, this can have a devastating effect on hospitals," Paulson told Public News Service. "And in fact, we've seen a number of hospital closures over the past several years because they just aren't able to make ends meet."
