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FOR RELEASE WITH A.M. PAPERS ON

FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 2004

NATIONAL REPORT CONDEMNS COLORADO

FOR CUTTING STATE IMMUNIZATION FUNDING

WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2004) – An assessment of health care in the 50 states, released here today, finds that Colorado is a laggard in the field of public health. The report, which criticizes Colorado for ending its general fund support of childhood immunization programs, appears in the February 2004 issue of Governing magazine.

Colorado cut its state general fund appropriation for inoculations entirely this year as one measure to help balance its budget. Although the state continues to receive federal funding for vaccinations, the loss of the state dollars makes it more difficult to promote childhood immunizations. As the Governing report indicates, that is particularly undesirable in Colorado, which has the lowest childhood vaccination rates in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There’s no doubt that states have had to make difficult decisions to balance their budgets during this fiscal crisis,” said Michele Mariani, co-author of the special issue of Governing. “But Colorado slashed funding in an area--childhood vaccinations--where it already ranks last in the country. That cut puts an already vulnerable population at greater risk, and may result in many more sick children.”

A recently released study by the Children’s Hospital in Denver, for example, indicated that the state’s rate of whooping cough, a serious illness that can be prevented by immunizations, was nearly three times the national rate.

On the positive side, the Governing report praised Colorado for its work in shifting dollars for long-term care for the elderly or disabled away from nursing homes and toward home or community-based care. It is one of only a half dozen states in which there is actually more money spent on home care than institutional care. This accomplishment has introduced a new set of problems, however, the report says. Critics have complained that the state needs to do a better job of monitoring the quality of the care delivered at home. Colorado was also one of several states cited in a report from the General Accounting Office last summer as having a significant increase in the number of serious deficiencies found in nursing homes.

Governing’s analysis of state-funded health care is part of the Government Performance Project, a six-year-old effort, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, to evaluate a wide range of state government management and policy functions. This year’s special report focuses on six critical health care problems facing states: long-term care, public health, mental health, prescription drugs, access to care for the uninsured, and care for children.

The Government Performance Project found and documented the inability of the 50 states’ health care system to deliver improvements in medicine fairly and consistently to many of their citizens. Health care in most states is not just inadequate, the study concluded--it’s deteriorating. “After exhaustive analysis and hundreds of interviews,” says Peter Harkness, Governing’s publisher and editor, “it became clear that there is a health care crisis in America. But it is in no way a medical crisis. It is a fiscal crisis.”

Governing is a policy and management magazine aimed at high-level state and local government officials. An online version of this report will be available at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/intro.htm as of January 29. Press releases for each of the 50 states can be found at http://www.governing.com/gpp/2004/press.htm.

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