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Study of Pueblo Health-Care Costs Proposed

Posted on: Saturday, 21 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Charles Ashby, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Jan. 21--DENVER - Local lawmakers want to find out why health-care costs are higher in Pueblo County than elsewhere in the state.

So on Thursday, they got the Senate Health and Human Services to pass a measure that would do just that.

Under SB11, introduced by Pueblo Democratic Sen. Abel Tapia and state Rep. Dorothy Butcher, the Colorado Division of Insurance is to conduct a comprehensive study on the factors that drive health-insurance costs in the Pueblo area.

"This is intended to be a simple study to give the citizens of Pueblo information that they need in terms of what's driving the higher cost in Pueblo," Tapia said. "As a Pueblo employer, I want my employees to have the price and quality information that is critical to make the free market work."

A handful of Pueblo-area doctors who testified before the committee, which approved the bill unanimously, said a previous attempt to examine the issue hit a major roadblock: Insurance companies refused to disclose "proprietary" information about themselves and how they determine rates.

Pueblo physician Dr. Rina Shinn, head of the Pueblo County Medical Society, said this study would get the issue around that block.

"We're simply puzzled why our health-care costs are so high," she said. "We do not have the data to understand why that is."

Dr. Carl Bartecchi, a Pueblo physician who specializes in internal medicine, said there are numerous factors that drive health-care costs in Pueblo, not the least of which is the smaller numbers of health insurance companies that offer coverage.

Bartecchi said the city also has large elderly and retired populations, has more migrant workers, and it has a larger percentage of people with asthma, diabetes and weight problems than the state's larger cities, such as Colorado Springs and Denver. The city also has more smokers than other parts of the state and more heart attacks, though coronary problems have declined in the past year since the city passed its no-smoking ban in public buildings, Bartecchi said.

Fewer heart attacks means a reduction in health-care costs that should translate into a decline in health insurance rates, he said.

"In the 18 months after the (no-smoking) ordinance, we've had 109 less heart attacks than in the 18 months prior to the ordinance," Bartecchi said. "That's a 27 percent decline in myocardial infarctions, or heart attacks, during that period. When you take that the average heart attack would cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000, you're talking about millions of dollars in health-care money."

Still, Tapia said that other parts of the state, including other parts of Southern Colorado such as Fremont County and Walsenburg, have similar demographics as Pueblo but lower health-care costs.

Tapia said the study will examine health-care costs in the county from 2002 to 2005, allowing it to take into account the reduced number of heart attacks in the city.

The bill heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee for discussion about how much it will cost to implement. Tapia isn't worried it won't be approved there, in part, because he is chairman of that panel.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

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