New on the Web 22: September 2003
We've collected information on several new reports and other resources available on the Web that we hope you'll find interesting and useful. Descriptions and links appear below.
American Immigrant Law Foundation: "Not Getting What They Paid For: Limiting Immigrants' Access to Benefits Hurts Families without Reducing Healthcare Costs"
Center for American Progress: "Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation: What It Means for Rural Beneficiaries"
Center for Survey Research, Stony Brook University: "Concerns About Work-Related Health Benefits"
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "About 1.7 Million Medicare Beneficiaries in Rural America Would Be Denied Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits under the Senate Prescription Drug Bill," "The Six Million Medicare Beneficiaries Excluded from Prescription Drug Benefits under the Senate Bill Are Disproportionately Minority"
Commonwealth Fund: "Impact of Medicare Coverage on Basic Clinical Services for Previously Uninsured Adults", "Health Insurance Scams: How Government is Responding and What Further Steps Are Needed"
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured: "Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: An Overview of Current Legal Rights and Responsibilities," "How Race/Ethnicity, Immigration Status and Language Affect Insurance Coverage and Access to Care and Quality of Care among the Low-Income Population"
Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust: "Employer Health Benefits 2003 Annual Survey"
Maternal and Child Health Library: "Knowledge Path: Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Services"
Mathematica Policy Research: "Access to Physician Services in Public Insurance Programs for Low-Income Populations: A Framework for Assessment and Action"
Urban Institute: "The Policy Decoder"
From the American Immigrant Law Foundation:
The welfare reform law known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) barred most lawful permanent residents of the United States from receiving many of the public benefits their tax dollars help fund. Not Getting What They Paid For: Limiting Immigrants' Access to Benefits Hurts Families without Reducing Healthcare Costs finds that benefit restrictions have reduced access to health insurance for both legal immigrants and their citizen children and have failed to significantly reduce government health care expenditures because of the high costs of providing medical care for the uninsured. (June 2003)
From the Center for American Progress:
Medicare Prescription Drug Legislation: What It Means for Rural Beneficiaries presents a new analysis showing that rural beneficiaries are, relative to their urban counterparts, older, sicker, have lower incomes, and are nearly twice as likely to lack any type of prescription drug coverage. They therefore have a greater need for a Medicare drug benefit. The report argues that such beneficiaries would not be served by a drug benefit that has weak protections for low-income beneficiaries and that relies exclusively on private insurers to provide the benefit. (September 2003)
From the Center for Survey Research, Stony Brook University:
Concerns About Work-Related Health Benefits reports on the results of a survey that found that, in the current economic climate, non-retired Americans are more concerned about job-related health care (and other) benefits than salary by a wide margin. When asked whether they would choose a higher paying job that did not provide health coverage or a job that paid less but provided health coverage if they had to look for a job in the coming year, a large majority of non-retired Americans preferred employment that carried health benefits. This willingness to trade health benefits for salary held across the economic spectrum. (August 2003)
From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
About 1.7 Million Medicare Beneficiaries in Rural America Would Be Denied Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits under the Senate Prescription Drug Bill explains that these beneficiaries would not be covered under the Senate's bill because they are "dual eligibles"-low-income people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid-that the Senate bill doesn't cover. Dual eligibles are more likely to live in rural areas than typical Americans, so this exclusion would disproportionately affect rural beneficiaries. This would represent the first time that a group of Medicare beneficiaries would be excluded from a Medicare benefit. (September 2003)
The Six Million Medicare Beneficiaries Excluded from Prescription Drug Benefits under the Senate Bill Are Disproportionately Minority reports that African American and Latino Medicare beneficiaries are at least twice as likely to be excluded from Medicare drug coverage under the Senate bill because they are "dual eligibles." However, a majority of dual eligibles are non-Hispanic whites. (September 2003)
From the Commonwealth Fund:
Impact of Medicare Coverage on Basic Clinical Services for Previously Uninsured Adults explores the effect that gaining Medicare coverage has on insured and uninsured adults. The study found that gaining access to Medicare coverage substantially improves use of appropriate preventive health services such as cancer and cholesterol screening among previously uninsured older adults, and it reduces the difference in use of preventive health care between those who are and are not covered under Medicare by at least half. (August 2003)
The U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented influx of unauthorized insurers selling phony health insurance. Regulators believe this problem will only grow as premiums continue to increase at double-digit rates and people continue looking for affordable alternatives. Health Insurance Scams: How Government is Responding and What Further Steps Are Needed highlights state and federal strategies that have been successful at identifying and closing unauthorized health plans, as well as methods of preventing their proliferation. (August 2003)
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:
Immigrants often face barriers to health coverage and health services that are similar to those faced by low-income working families generally, but some immigrants also face linguistic barriers. However, several federal and state laws and policies compel publicly funded health care programs and activities to provide language access. Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Settings: An Overview of Current Legal Rights and Responsibilities focuses on the language access responsibilities of federal fund recipients, including hospitals, nursing homes, managed care organizations (such as HMOs), state Medicaid agencies, home health agencies, health service providers, and social service organizations. (August 2003)
How Race/Ethnicity, Immigration Status and Language Affect Insurance Coverage and Access to Care and Quality of Care among the Low-Income Population seeks to clarify the roles that race, language, and citizenship status play in health coverage and access to and quality of health care, particularly for the low-income Latino community. The report found that Latinos who are not citizens or who have limited English proficiency are much more likely to be uninsured, less likely to use health care services, and more likely to experience problems communicating with health care providers than their citizen and English-speaking counterparts. It notes that understanding the roles played by citizenship status and language is important for developing policies to help reduce disparities in health care coverage. (August 2003)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust:
The Employer Health Benefits 2003 Annual Survey presents findings on many aspects of employer health plans, including coverage, costs, enrollment patterns, health plan choice, and employee costs. It provides data on recent increases in insurance premiums, current cost-sharing requirements for employees, and information about employers' attitudes about controlling rising health care costs. One of its most striking findings is that private health insurance premiums increased by 13.9 percent in 2003, a larger increase than last year-in fact, the largest increase since 1990-and the third consecutive year of double-digit increases. The survey also found that, while employers are not dropping coverage altogether, most are passing on higher costs to their employees. (September 2003)
From the Maternal and Child Health Library:
Knowledge Path: Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) Services is an electronic guide on current, high-quality resources for health professionals and families about providing and strengthening EPSDT services. The resource also includes guidelines for the frequency, timing, and content of health promotion and disease prevention services for infants, children, and adolescents. (July 2003)
From Mathematica Policy Research:
Eligibility expansions for low-income children and families under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have improved access to physicians for many, but problems in this area persist. Access to Physician Services in Public Insurance Programs for Low-Income Populations: A Framework for Assessment and Action organizes what is known about the determinants of physician access into a framework that is intended to help states identify three factors: 1) the sources of problems with physician access, 2) the interventions that may solve these problems (including examples), and 3) the major parties involved in implementing these interventions. (August 2003)
From the Urban Institute:
The Policy Decoderis a glossary of terms used in local and national policy debates. This glossary is a work in progress and will be updated and expanded periodically. (August 2003)
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