SOURCE: Health Affairs current issue – Read entire story here.
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If Rollbacks Go Forward, Up To 14 Million Children Could Become Ineligible For Public Or Subsidized Coverage By 2019 [Web First] In spring 2015 Congress passed legislation to extend funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through the end of fiscal year 2017. This two-year extension pushes to 2017 the question of whether CHIP funding will end, allowing states to end their separate state CHIP programs. Also, when the Affordable Care Act’s maintenance-of-effort requirements expire after 2019, states will be allowed to roll back Medicaid- and CHIP-eligibility thresholds to minimum levels allowed by federal law. This study investigated the potential health insurance options available to low-income children if these events happen. If all states roll back coverage to federal statutory...
Most Uninsured Adults Could Schedule Primary Care Appointments Before The ACA, But Average Price Was $160 [Access To Care] Provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allow millions more Americans to obtain health insurance. However, a sizable number of people remain uninsured because they live in states that have not expanded Medicaid coverage or because they feel that Marketplace coverage is not affordable. Using data from a ten-state telephone survey in which callers posed as patients, we examined prices for primary care visits offered by physician offices to new uninsured patients in 2012–13, prior to ACA insurance expansions. Patients were quoted a mean price of $160. Significantly lower prices for the uninsured were offered by family practice offices compared...
Hospital Closures Had No Measurable Impact On Local Hospitalization Rates Or Mortality Rates, 2003-11 [Access To Care] The Affordable Care Act (ACA) set in motion payment changes that could put pressure on hospital finances and lead some hospitals to close. Understanding the impact of closures on patient care and outcomes is critically important. We identified 195 hospital closures in the United States between 2003 and 2011. We found no significant difference between the change in annual mortality rates for patients living in hospital service areas (HSAs) that experienced one or more closures and the change in rates in matched HSAs without a closure (5.5 percent to 5.2 percent versus 5.4 percent to 5.4 percent, respectively). Nor was...
