New on the Web 6: February 2002

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 Journal of Public Health: "Problems With Access to Dental Care for Medicaid-Insured Children: What Caregivers Think"

CDC: "Trends in Racial and Ethnic-Specific Rates for the Health Status Indicators: United States, 1990-1998"

Center for Medicare Education: "Developing Culturally Appropriate Medicare Education Materials"

Center on an Aging Society: "Data Profile: Screening for Chronic Conditions"

Kaiser Family Foundation: "Medicaid: Purchasing Prescription Drugs", "The Sad History of Health Care Cost Containment as Told in One Chart"

Mathematica Policy Research: "Choice Continues to Erode in 2002"

National Association of Child Advocates: "Understanding Research: Top Ten Tips for Advocates and Policymakers"

Oral Health America: "Filling the Gaps: Oral Health in America"

Robert Wood Johnson State Coverage Initiatives: "State of the States"

Urban Institute: "State Profiles of Health Insurance, Access, and Use"

American Journal of Public Health

Dental disease is the most common health problem in this country, yet even those with public insurance have difficulty gaining access to primary dental services. Problems With Access to Dental Care for Medicaid-Insured Children: What Caregivers Think presents the results of a study undertaken to gain insight into the experiences and perceptions of a racially diverse group of caregivers regarding barriers to dental care for their Medicaid-insured children. Those caregivers who successfully searched for providers, arranged for an appointment, and found transportation often had to contend with additional barriers, including long waiting times and disrespectful and discriminatory behavior from staff and providers because of their race and public assistance status. (January 2002)

CDC

Trends in Racial and Ethnic-Specific Rates for the Health Status Indicators: United States, 1990-1998 presents national data on race- and ethnic-specific rates for 17 health status indicators, including death rates for such causes as heart disease, stroke, suicide, and work-related injuries. The report is part of Healthy People 2000, an effort led by HHS that sets goals for each decade and then measures progress towards achieving them. The report concluded that, although substantial progress had been made for a few indicators, for about half the indicators the disparities improved only slightly, and disparities actually widened substantially for motor vehicle crash deaths, suicide, and work-related injury deaths. (January 2002)

Center for Medicare Education

Cultural differences are some of the most subtle factors affecting how people with Medicare understand their benefits, rights, and choices. Yet cultural background affects people's understanding of the concept of insurance, their attitudes towards government programs, and their capacity to understand the information they receive. Developing Culturally Appropriate Medicare Education Materials explores the lessons learned from an effort to develop and test Medicare education materials suitable for audiences of varying cultural backgrounds. (2001)

Center on an Aging Society

Data Profile: Screening for Chronic Conditions from the Center on an Aging Society is the most recent statistical portrait in their series entitled Challenges for the 21st Century: Chronic and Disabling Conditions. This Data Profile examines the use of screening services according to age, insurance status, and source of care. It takes a look at the proportions of different groups screened for breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate, and skin cancers, as well as the proportion of adults asked about risk-related behaviors. (January 2002)

Kaiser Family Foundation

Medicaid: Purchasing Prescription Drugs describes the federal regulatory framework within which states design and implement their Medicaid prescription drug benefits. This Policy Brief summarizes the flexibility available to state Medicaid agencies in designing a prescription drug benefit, controlling utilization, and paying for drugs. It goes on to describe the program under which drug manufacturers provide rebates to both the federal and state governments for the drugs Medicaid buys, and it reviews efforts in Maine and Vermont to extend the discounts achieved by the rebate program to non-Medicaid populations. (January 2002)

The Sad History of Health Care Cost Containment as Told in One Chart, an analysis done by the Kaiser Family Foundation that appears in an online issue of Health Affairs, shows that no approach to cost containment that has been tried in the past 35 years has had a lasting impact. The chart tracks the impact on private health spending per capita of Medicaid and Medicare, wage and price controls, the "voluntary effort" made during the Carter Administration, managed care, and the threat of health reform. The authors conclude that "managed care is not alone in its failure to solve the health care cost problem." (January 2002)

Mathematica Policy Research

The Medicare+Choice program, created by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, aimed in part to expand the health plan options available to Medicare beneficiaries. A new fact sheet, Choice Continues to Erode in 2002, shows that choices continue to dwindle as more plans exit the program, benefits are eroding, and more seniors are returning to traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Although fewer enrollees will be directly affected by plan withdrawals in 2002 than in 2001, such withdrawals with still affect nearly 10 percent of beneficiaries this year. (January 2002)

National Association of Child Advocates

"Understanding Research: Top Ten Tips for Advocates and Policymakers" discusses criteria advocates can use when critically evaluating the quality and validity of research. These tips include Different types of research have different strengths," "Statistical significance explained," and "Any one study is not the whole story. (January 2002)

Oral Health America

The advocacy group Oral Health America has released a national report card on the state of dental health in America entitled Filling the Gaps: Oral Health in America. State and national grades were based on public health information culled from a variety of sources, including data from the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, HCFA/CMS, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the National Cancer Institute. The national grade was a C, with many states receiving some of their lowest grades in the area of access to care. (January 2002)

Robert Wood Johnson State Coverage Initiatives

State of the States, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Coverage Initiatives program, provides an assessment of how budget pressures have forced many states to re-think coverage expansions. The report discusses coverage challenges such as the temptation to cut Medicaid programs, SCHIP enrollment, "SCHIP Dip," and prescription drug costs. It also discusses the impact of the Administration's HIFA waiver initiative, insurance market reforms in 2001, and state planning and demonstration efforts. (January 2002)

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