COBRA Coverage for Low-Income Unemployed Workers
Summarizes the COBRA health coverage law, how it is administered, what its limitations are, and how it impacts low-income workers.
Covering Parents through Medicaid and SCHIP: Potential Benefits to Low-Income Parents and Children
A new report examines state efforts to expand Medicaid and SCHIP coverage to low-income parents and assesses the potential impact of insurance coverage for parents on access to care for themselves and their children.
Assessing the Status of California’s Physician Workforce: Shortage or Surplus? — Issue Brief
Assessing the Status of California’s Physician Workforce: Shortage or Surplus? — Issue Brief
A 4-page issue brief that looks at recent estimates of California’s present and future physician supply, various issues that affect the state s physician workforce, and approaches for ensuring an adequate number and mix of primary care and specialty physicians, as well as a balanced geographic and demographic distribution. The brief lists the panel for a California Health Policy Roundtable held in Sacramento, California on October 24, 2001.
Maintaining Health Coverage and Securing the Medicaid Safety Net in a Sluggish Economy
The current economy is a key concern as federal and state leaders worry about the expected rise in unemployment and the related loss of employer health coverage. Policymakers are considering several options to ensure that we do not experience a health coverage crisis as we deal with the impact of the September 11th tragedy and ongoing concerns. In addition, states that were already preparing for budget problems are reporting even worse scenarios for their fiscal outlook.The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured has five new publications that can assist you as you grapple with the impact of recent events on our health care system.
- Testimony: Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers
- Issue Paper: Medicaid and State Budgets: An October 2001 Update
- Background Paper: Medicaid Budgets Under Stress: Survey Findings for State Fiscal Year 2000, 2001, and 2002
- Fact Sheet: COBRA Coverage for Low-Income Unemployed Workers
- Report: Covering Parents through Medicaid and SCHIP: Potential Benefits to Low-Income Parents and Children
Pieces of the Puzzle
A new report describes the Report to Congress by the Department of Health and Human Services on consumer protection and quality assurance requirements for Medicaid managed care and discusses the differences between the original Federal rule and the revised one.
Poll Finding
Health News Index – September/October 2001
Health News Index September/October, 2001
The September/October 2001 edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Health News Index includes questions about major health stories covered in the news, including reports about rising health insurance premiums and Americans most important sources for health news and information. The Health News Index is designed to help the news media and people in the health field gain a better understanding of which health stories Americans are following and what they understand about those health issues.
Major Differences in the BBA Medicaid Managed Care Regulation
A side-by-side comparison of the original and revised Federal rule for new consumer protection and quality assurance requirements for Medicaid managed care.
Access to Care and Use of Health Services by Low-Income Women
This article, by Ruth Almeida and Lisa Dubay of the Urban Institute and Grace Ko of Brown University, examines the effect of insurance on low-income women’s access to care and use of health services. Using the 1997 National Survey of America’s Families, it examines access to health care for three groups of low-income women: those with Medicaid, those with private coverage, and those with no insurance. Uninsured low-income women were found to have experienced greater barriers to care and to have utilized fewer services, particularly preventive care, than women with either public or private coverage. Low-income women with Medicaid and private coverage had similar access to care indicating that broadening health care coverage options, either through the public-sector or through private options, would improve access to care for low-income women.
This article appeared in the Health Care Financing Review, Summer 2001, Vol. 22, No.4: 27-47 and was funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Journal Article (.pdf)
Trends in CHIP Expenditures: State-by-State Data
A new brief reviews the latest data available on states’ use of CHIP funds and explores the effect of a pending dip in CHIP funding on states’ ability to provide health care coverage to uninsured, low-income children.
Lessons from the Field: Increasing Enrollment in Children’s Health Insurance in Los Angeles County
A new background report highlights health coverage trends for children in Los Angeles County, examines some of the factors behind Medi-Cal enrollment growth, and attempts to draw relevant lessons for other counties and states.
Also see “First Glance at the Children’s Health Initiative in Santa Clara County, California”.