Health Affairs

As the United States begins implementing health reform, how does the U.S. experience compare with that of other high-income countries? To answer that question, The Commonwealth Fund conducted its thirteenth annual health policy survey, this year focusing on access, cost, and care experiences. The survey findings were published today in a Health Affairs Web First... Read the rest of this entry »

The federal government’s unsustainable long-run fiscal picture has been outlined in successive versions of the Congressional Budget Office’s Long-Term Budget Outlook.  The policy problem is that spending rises above any reasonable level of taxation for the indefinite future.  As it currently stands, committed federal expenditures are expected to grow from 20 percent of gross domestic... Read the rest of this entry »

An oft-heard criticism of the new health care law is that its major provisions do not kick in until 2014, leaving little immediate benefit for most Americans, especially those struggling in this economy. However, the reality is that the Affordable Care Act is already helping millions of low-income seniors who have had tenuous coverage for... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: Today on Health Affairs Blog, Courtney Burke and Erika Martin of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government/Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy at the State University of New York in Albany examine two related issues that will be important to monitor and address as health reform is implemented. Below, the two researchers discuss access to... Read the rest of this entry »

“Patient-centered medical homes” are widely considered to be among the most promising approaches to delivering higher-quality, cost-effective primary care in the United States, especially for those with chronic health conditions.  Health care reform legislation authorizes the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to test medical homes, among other new care-delivery models, to help avert... Read the rest of this entry »

What does the Massachusetts experience tell us about the prospects for success of national health reform? That’s the subject of an ongoing debate that relies heavily on research published in Health Affairs by Urban Institute researchers. The pessimistic view on Massachusetts. In a column in today’s Washington Post, Robert Samuelson cites a June 2010 Health Affairs article by Sharon... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: Earlier posts by Timothy Jost provide analyses of regulations implementing provisions of the new health reform legislation governing a patient bill of rights, grandfathered plans, tax exempt hospitals, the small employer tax credit, the Web portal, reinsurance for early retirees, and young adult coverage.  On July 14, 2010, the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: Earlier posts by Timothy Jost provide analyses of regulations implementing provisions of the new health reform legislation governing grandfathered plans, tax exempt hospitals, the small employer tax credit, the Web portal, reinsurance for early retirees, and young adult coverage.  On June 22, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury released interim final regulations... Read the rest of this entry »

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote today on the nomination of Sherry Glied to be the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services. The President nominated Glied, a professor and chair of the department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public... Read the rest of this entry »

Despite unprecedented growth in available resources, the world is facing both short- and long-run financial crises in combating the international HIV/AIDS pandemic. That message emerges strongly from a cluster of articles in the November/December 2009 issue of Health Affairs funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. HIV funding shortfalls and their potential lethal consequences... Read the rest of this entry »

Bold changes are needed in how the United States delivers and pays for primary care if the key goals of national health reform are to be achieved, according to the May issue of Health Affairs. This thematic issue of the journal, released today at a National Press Club briefing, examines the crisis facing the U.S. primary care system... Read the rest of this entry »

Public and private investments in community health centers – institutions that provide care to approximately 15 million of the nation’s poor and medically underserved – have led to greatly expanded services and care for people who are uninsured, says a study published in the February 2010 edition of Health Affairs. Based on their study, the authors... Read the rest of this entry »

At a Health Affairs reporters breakfast this morning, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag defended the ability of the health reform bill being debated in the Senate to “bend the cost curve” of health care costs. “The bill that is currently on the Senate floor contains more cost-containment and delivery system... Read the rest of this entry »

As uncomfortable as it is for many Americans to accept, allocation issues are a permanent feature of our health care system, “reformed” or not.  Who should get the H1N1 flu vaccine first? In a flu pandemic or a biological disaster, who should be put on respirators and who should not?  These hard choices are realities,... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: In addition to Arthur Garson (photo and bio available above), coauthors of this post include Margaret Whitehead, Tracy Buni, Catherine Sommers, and Karen Rheuban. Given current trends, access to health care will worsen considerably in the next 15 years. The first wave of baby boomers is now turning 65, and health care utilization for... Read the rest of this entry »

The Problem. The treatment of lower-income workers and families eligible for employer coverage is a difficult challenge for health reform. Many of these workers struggle to afford their rising contribution requirements. Recent survey findings indicate that 38 percent of workers eligible for employer coverage and with incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL)... Read the rest of this entry »

While the most visible national health reform fight at the moment focuses on a public plan option for people covered through health insurance exchanges (or gateways), a quieter debate is brewing over whether coverage for low-income people should be achieved through Medicaid expansions or subsidies to purchase insurance through an exchange. For example, the Senate... Read the rest of this entry »

Join us for a discussion, moderated by Susan Dentzer of Health Affairs, examining the impact of the nursing workforce on health care delivery, access and quality. This event, on Friday June 12 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Union Station Columbus Club in Washington DC, also marks the publication of several papers in Health... Read the rest of this entry »

Despite economic hard times, Massachusetts still shows gains in insurance coverage and access to care as a result of its 2006 state health reform. However, some of the early gains in reducing barriers to health care and improving affordability had eroded by the fall of 2008, according to Urban Institute researchers in a new study published last week on the... Read the rest of this entry »

The number of uninsured Americans is projected to increase by at least 6.9 million by 2010 — meaning 19.2 percent of nonelderly Americans would be uninsured. This is an increase of 2.0 percentage points from 2007, say Todd Gilmer and Richard Kronick of the University of California, San Diego, in a paper published May 28 on the... Read the rest of this entry »