New on the Web 61 (October 2009)
From the Commonwealth Fund: “Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2009”
From the Government Accountability Office: “Medicaid: State and Federal Actions Have Been Taken to Improve Children’s Access to Dental Services, but Gaps Remain”
From Health Affairs: “Massachusetts Health Reform: Employer Coverage from Employees’ Perspective”
From the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies: “The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the US”
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured: “Advancing Access to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services: Key Issues Based on a Working Group Discussion with Medicaid Experts,” “The Crunch Continues: Medicaid Spending, Coverage, and Policy in the Midst of a Recession”
From the Kaiser Family Foundation: “Health Reform: Implications for Women’s Access to Coverage and Care,” “A Profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives and Their Health Coverage,” “Americans’ Satisfaction with Insurance Coverage”
From the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust: “Employer Health Benefits 2009 Annual Survey”
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “The Cost of Failure to Enact Health Reform”
From the Urban Institute: “Variation in Insurance Coverage across Congressional Districts: New Estimates from 2008,” “Estimating the Cost of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities”
From the Commonwealth Fund
Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance, 2009 finds rising health care costs are making coverage less affordable across the country. The report projects that these costs are also likely to widen gaps in access based on income, insurance status, or race/ethnicity. These nationwide problems underscore the need for comprehensive national reform to expand and improve the quality of coverage. (October 2009)
From the Government Accountability Office
Medicaid: State and Federal Actions Have Been Taken to Improve Children’s Access to Dental Services, but Gaps Remain discusses the different tools that states use to monitor the provision of dental services to children in Medicaid. Despite states’ efforts to improve access to dental services by increasing reimbursement rates or simplifying claims processes, access remains low. (September 2009)
From Health Affairs
Massachusetts Health Reform: Employer Coverage from Employees’ Perspective reveals that concerns about employers dropping coverage or scaling back benefits under Massachusetts’s 2006 health reform law have not been realized. In fact, the quality of and access to job-based coverage has actually increased. Now lawmakers are working to make premiums and out-of-pocket costs more affordable for smaller firms. (October 2009)
From the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the US discusses how disparities in health and health care affect the economy, either directly through the costs associated with providing care to a sicker and more disadvantaged group, or indirectly, such as causing losses in productivity due to illness. The report estimates these costs to show the potential economic benefits of decreasing racial and ethnic health inequalities, including how it could lower the cost of health reform. (September 2009)
From the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:
Advancing Access to Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services: Key Issues Based on a Working Group Discussion with Medicaid Experts discusses the growing consensus that home- and community-based services (HCBS) are preferred among Medicaid beneficiaries with long-term care needs. It outlines some experts’ ideas on how to further the move to more HCBS by expanding Medicaid eligibility and access to HCBS, increasing funding for long-term services, and addressing workforce shortages. (September 2009)
The Crunch Continues: Medicaid Spending, Coverage and Policy in the Midst of a Recession details how Medicaid funds in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) helped states address budget shortfalls, preserve Medicaid eligibility, and avoid or lessen program cuts. ARRA allowed 36 states to completely avoid cuts to Medicaid benefits and either eliminate or reduce their Medicaid budget shortfalls. (September 2009)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation:
Health Reform: Implications for Women’s Access to Coverage and Care discusses a range of women’s health care issues, including access to coverage, affordability, scope of benefits, reproductive health, and long-term care, as well as how current health reform proposals address these issues. (October 2009)
A Profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives and Their Health Coverage examines how high rates of poverty and chronic health conditions influence the health and health coverage of American Indians and Alaska Natives. It also discusses how a lack of funding has prevented the Indian Health Service from offering a full range of services, as well as the effects that this has had on the health of these groups. (September 2009)
Americans’ Satisfaction with Insurance Coverage provides deeper insight into the tracking polls that have found that Americans positively rate their own health insurance. The data reveal that significant portions of those who rate their insurance positively say they still face problems paying their medical bills or are dissatisfied with certain aspects of their coverage, which casts some doubt on the accuracy of this type of poll. (September 2009)
From the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust
Employer Health Benefits 2009 Annual Survey provides a detailed look at trends in job-based health coverage, including changes in premiums, employee contributions, and cost-sharing. The survey also includes new questions about onsite health clinics, whether employers offer financial incentives to employees for completing health risk assessments, and the impact of the economic downturn. (September 2009)
From the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Cost of Failure to Enact Health Reform examines the repercussions of not passing health reform in three scenarios—worst, intermediate, and best case—each based on different projected growth rates in income and health care costs. This state-by-state analysis shows that without reform, the percent of uninsured individuals will increase, job-based coverage will continue to deteriorate, spending on public programs will expand, and out-of-pocket costs could increase by more than 35 percent. (September 2009)
From the Urban Institute
Variation in Insurance Coverage across Congressional Districts: New Estimates from 2008 reveals which districts face the greatest deficiencies in private coverage and where public coverage has been able to close some of these gaps. Rates of private coverage are lowest in districts that have higher poverty rates, and despite above-average rates of public coverage in these areas, lack of insurance continues to be a serious problem. (October 2009)
Estimating the Cost of Racial and Ethnic Disparities looks at how higher rates of disease among different racial and ethnic groups place an economic burden on public programs and the health care system at large. The brief estimates that disparities in preventable disease rates among African Americans, Latinos, and whites will cost the health care system $23.9 billion in 2009 alone. (September 2009)
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