A Blueprint for Change: Identifying Health Disparities in the Mountain States

PRESS RELEASE

A Blueprint for Change: Identifying Health Disparities in the Mountain States

A landmark report illustrates the barriers to health and social support systems that low-income and minority populations experience in the six Mountain States. The report includes a number of observations that are particular to 439,000 Native Americans who live in the region. Native Americans are significantly less likely to be near health care services, to live in areas with good access to food, or to finish high school. This population is more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses and to be involved with high risk behaviors.

These conclusions are from the Mountain States Region Health Disparities Blueprint, released on May 20, 2015, by the Mountain States Regional Health Equity Council (RHEC), a group of local health advocates and experts with representation from throughout the region. The Mountain States RHEC is a branch of the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA), a national multi-sector community partnership for health equity. The RHEC seeks to advance the achievement of health equity by using information in the report card to educate others about health disparities in Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Other key findings include:

• There are an estimated 140,860 persons who might receive health insurance through Medicaid who remain without health coverage in the four Mountain States that have not yet decided to expand Medicaid.
• More than 20% of the population in Montana, South Dakota, and North Dakota lives in areas with significant shortages of primary care physicians, dentists, and mental health professionals.
• All six states experience significantly higher rates of suicide and motor vehicle accidents.
• Providing linguistically and culturally appropriate services is made more challenging by the 13% of the region’s population that speaks Spanish at home and the multiplicity of other groups that have been attracted by the region’s opportunity and economic growth.

“This report should help us focus more attention on issues that lie at the heart of health disparities in our states and region,” said John Grima, a Utah-based council member and a principle author of the report’s data findings. “It may be particularly valuable with respect to making the case for Medicaid expansion in Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.”

To view the blueprint and to learn more about the efforts of the RHEC to improve health equity, visit http://region8.npa-rhec.org/.