Same Fields, Different Knowledge: How Gender Shapes Healthcare Awareness Among Colorado's Agricultural Workers

Access to healthcare can seem different depending on who you are, where you work, and stereotypes surrounding your identity. For agricultural workers in Colorado, certain barriers can make healthcare difficult to reach, such as lack of insurance, language discrepancies, and geographic isolation. When gender is added to the equation, these barriers can become even more complex. Research on women farmworkers finds they frequently encounter unique health risks and barriers to accessing reproductive and preventive healthcare services, compounding the challenges already present in agricultural communities. Project Protect’s 2025 HDCGP Preventative Healthcare Survey finds that gender shapes healthcare experiences in meaningful ways among Colorado’s agricultural workers. The Survey reveals significant gender-based differences in how Colorado agricultural workers understand their employer benefits, their current coverage status, and their awareness of hospital financial assistance programs. These findings point to the importance of designing outreach and policy solutions that take into account the difference in how men and women in this workforce navigate the healthcare system.

The first question of Project Protect’s 2025 HDCGP Preventative Healthcare Survey examined whether an employer provides health insurance or pays for healthcare based on gender. Among the 593 survey respondents with valid gender responses, 16.4 percent of women and 19.3 percent of men reported having employer-provided coverage, a difference insignificant on its own. The more important finding however is how men and women responded when they did not have employer coverage. When asked if they knew if their employer provided coverage, Women were significantly more likely to answer “No” (70.7%) compared to men (60.9%), while nearly 1 in 5 men (19.8%) said they did not know whether their employer provided coverage compared to 1 in 8 women (12.9%). This difference in awareness of employer provided coverage is statistically significant (p=0.037), meaning it is most likely not due to chance. The most notable gap between men and women in this workforce is under the same conditions, men are far more likely to be unaware of their own benefits. This reflects differences in how gender plays a role when it comes to approaching healthcare. Regardless of awareness, nearly 4 in 5 agricultural workers of both genders lack employer-provided coverage, leaving the majority dependent on other sources of insurance or even going without insurance entirely.

The second question of the survey examined whether agricultural workers currently have any health insurance, broken down by gender. Within the 573 respondents of the survey with valid responses to both the gender and insurance questions, 37.6% of women and 35.8% of men reported having some form of health insurance. This difference was not statistically significant (p=0.679), meaning that the gap in insurance rates between men and women is too small to conclude that gender plays a meaningful role in who has coverage in this workforce. Nearly 6 in 10 workers of both genders lack any health coverage whatsoever. The lack of a significant difference shows that uninsurance in this workforce is not necessarily a gendered problem but indicated a structural one. Both men and women are working in an industry where employer coverage is rare, government programs are difficult to access, and private insurance is unfeasible for most workers. Between 2019 and 2023, Hispanic respondents born outside the United States consistently reported higher rates of uninsurance and delays in medical care due to cost, a pattern that maps directly onto what Project Protect’s survey finds in Colorado’s agricultural workforce regardless of gender. Through these findings we can address uninsurance for agricultural workers requires systemic solutions that reach all workers, not just interventions targeted at one gender.

The third question examined whether agricultural workers are aware they can ask for financial assistance at hospitals, broken down by gender. Among the 545 worker respondents with valid responses, the results showed the biggest difference gender can make when it comes to healthcare. Nearly half of the women (47.3%) reported they had already asked for financial assistance at a hospital, compared to only 34.2% of men. On the other end, 45.9% of men were completely unaware that financial assistance programs exist at hospitals, compared to 35.5% of women. The difference in the overall distribution of awareness across all three response categories was highly statistically significant (p=0.009), meaning the pattern between men and women is very unlikely to be due to chance. Research also suggests that women shoulder an estimated 80% of their family’s medical decision making responsibilities, which may help explain why women in this field have greater practical knowledge of hospital billing and financial assistance processes. When you are the person in charge and responsible for navigating healthcare for your family, knowing what resources are available becomes essential. The results of this survey suggest that policy targeting healthcare effects on women in this workforce could have an impact on the broader community: Reaching one woman with information about financial assistance programs is likely to reach the whole household. Meanwhile, almost half of male agricultural workers in Colorado remain unaware of assistance programs that could significantly reduce the financial burden of an illness or injury on the job.

Project Protect’s 2025 HDCGP Preventative Healthcare Survey reveals that while insurance affects men and women in Colorado’s agricultural workforce at similar rates, gender shapes how workers understand their benefits and navigate the healthcare system in ways that impact their wellbeing. Men are more likely to not know their employer coverage and other financial assistance programs, while women demonstrate greater practical knowledge of available resources. Research shows that community health worker-led interventions in Latino communities have documented increased access to healthcare and health education among farmworkers, making targeted reach like the Promotora Network essential to closing the awareness gaps this data identifies. These findings of the three questions we addressed suggest that outreach programs like Project Protect's Promotora Network should design gender-specific messaging that meets the workers where they currently are, ensuring that the men and women working in Colorado’s fields have equal access to the information and resources they need to protect the health of themselves and their families. Ultimately, knowing what resources are available is the first step to accessing them, and no worker regardless of gender should be left without that knowledge.