New Health Policy Briefs series from Health Affairs/RWJ

Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are pleased to announce a new series of Health Policy Briefs aimed at providing clear, accessible overviews of timely and important health policy topics.

Health Policy Briefs will be available for free on the Health Affairs Web site, along with email or RSS feed alert sign-up. The briefs will also be available via a direct link from RWJF’s Web site.

The briefs, produced by Health Affairs through a grant from the foundation, will allow readers to gain quick background on various policy proposals as health reform discussions proceed. The briefs will explore competing arguments made on various sides of a policy proposal and point out wherever possible the relevant research behind each perspective. Source: Health Affairs Blog.

Medicaid: Overview and Impact of New Regulations

Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and Uninsured. Medicaid: Overview and Impact of New Regulations. Washington, DC: KCMU, Issue Brief prepared by Robin Rudowitz, January 2008. Full report (pdf)

In the past year the Bush Administration has moved forward with significant changes to the Medicaid program via rule-making. Taken together, six new regulations could result in an estimated $12 billion reduction in federal Medicaid spending over the next five years according to the regulatory impact statements prepared by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This brief focuses on the six new regulations that have been the source of considerable controversy and explains current policy, the proposed regulatory changes as well as the impact and issues with these changes.

Tutorial on Health Care and the 2008 Election

Tutorial on Health Care and the Election.  KaiserEDU.org presents a new narrated slide tutorial on health care and the 2008 election by Claudia Deane, associate director of public opinion and media research at the Kaiser Family Foundation.  The tutorial uses Kaiser’s regular surveys taken throughout the campaign to examine public concerns about health care affordability, views on different policy approaches, trends in which issues the public wants presidential candidates to talk about, and how views vary by party identification.  KaiserEDU.org is an online resource for faculty and students from the Kaiser Family Foundation.  Tutorial

A Consumer Guide to State Health Reform (on-line guide)

Community Catalyst and Families USA are working with health care advocates in states across the nation to expand access to affordable quality health care to as many citizens as possible.  Based upon our collaborative work with advocates in Colorado, we have summarized different state experiences and used it to develop this new online tool to help advocates consider all of the options available.This guide will help advocates design health coverage expansions that build upon the current system of public programs, employer-sponsored insurance and private market options.  Start by laying a strong foundation through Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance (SCHIP) coverage; then by regulating the private insurance market; next by building subsidy programs and pooling mechanisms; by ensuring adequate benefits and access to services; and finally by finding sustainable financing.  Web site.

State Efforts to Reduce Number of Uninsured being Compromised

New reports released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) describe aggressive efforts by states in the past year and a half to expand coverage to low-income children and their families, but the actions may be curtailed as a deteriorating economic climate and new limits on federal assistance take effect.  A downturn in the economy, the federal failure to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and new federal rules affecting Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility all suggest that the recent period of aggressive expansion of coverage by states may be over. This is the conclusion based on a series of new studies by the KCMU, including a 50-state survey of eligibility and enrollment rules in Medicaid and SCHIP for children and families, interviews with Medicaid directors in ten states representing all regions of the country, and recent studies of enrollment in Medicaid and SCHIP.The reports released today include: * Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles,
* Current Issues in Medicaid: A Mid – FY 2008 Update Based on a Discussion with Medicaid Directors,
* SCHIP Enrollment in June 2007: An Update on Current Enrollment and SCHIP Policy Directions,
* Medicaid Enrollment in 50 States: December 2006 Data Update, and
* State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP): Reauthorization History.

They can all be found online here, along with some key publications that explain the impact of federal fiscal relief for Medicaid in the last recession.

Cornell’s Wex Collaborative Public Access Site Includes Health Law Resources

Wex is an ambitious effort to construct a collaboratively-created, public-access law dictionary and encyclopedia. It is sponsored and hosted by the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School (http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/). The health law section can be found here and includes relevant links to Federal constitution and statutes,Federal regulations, Federal judicial decisions, State statutes, State judicial decisions and related material.

Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views on the Presidential Candidates’ Health Reform Plans

K. K. Shea, S. R. Collins, and K. Davis, Health Care Opinion Leaders’ Views on the Presidential Candidates’ Health Reform Plans, The Commonwealth Fund, January 2008.

The 13th Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey asked a diverse group of experts for their perspective on the health care reform proposals of the 2008 presidential candidates. Survey participants strongly support reform proposals that applied a mixed private–public market approach. Additional favored policy strategies for reform include a requirement for individuals to obtain health insurance, new private market regulations, and a requirement for employers to provide coverage or contribute to a coverage fund. Alternatively, respondents think proposals that focus on tax incentives to purchase individual private health insurance are not an effective method for controlling the rising costs of health care or achieving universal coverage. Health care opinion leaders call for the next president to simultaneously address universal coverage and quality, efficiency, and cost containment policies to move our health care system toward high performance. Links to full Data Brief, Chartpack (pdf and PowerPoint), Tables and Full Methodology here.

Consumer Financial Incentives: A Decision Guide for Purchasers

AHRQ released Consumer Financial Incentives: A Decision Guide for Purchasers, a new guide to help employers, private health plans, the federal government, and state Medicaid agencies as they consider consumer financial incentives as part of an overarching strategy to improve health care quality and get better value for health services. Consumer financial incentives are either a reward offered to influence patients to behave in a particular way, or less often, a penalty for failing to do so. Health care purchasers hope that by using financial incentives patients are encouraged to take actions that may improve treatment results, such as selecting a high-quality physician, reducing or eliminating high-risk behaviors and using preventive services, or reduce costs by eliminating unnecessary emergency room visits and decreasing preventable hospitalizations. The decision guide consists of an evidence summary organized around a series of 21 questions that purchasers need to consider when implementing consumer financial incentives. In addition to a summary of the evidence base, the guide includes examples of consumer financial incentives currently being offered, criteria for selecting performance measures, elements to enable patients to participate in medical decision making and in managing their chronic diseases, and characteristics that increase the likelihood that a consumer will respond to financial incentives. A print copy is available by sending an e-mail to ahrqpubs@ahrq.hhs.gov. A press release and the Decision Guide are on-line.

Envisioning the Future: The 2008 Presidential Candidates’ Health Reform Proposals

This report from Commonwealth Fund analyzes the health care proposals of eight Democratic and Republican 2008 presidential candidates—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudolph Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney. Their approaches to health insurance reform fall into three categories: 1) proposals that emphasize tax incentives for obtaining insurance through the individual market (Giuliani, Huckabee, McCain, Romney); 2) proposals that build on existing private and public group insurance with shared responsibility for financing coverage (Clinton, Edwards, Obama); and 3) proposals that aim to cover everyone through publicly sponsored insurance systems like Medicare (Kucinich). The report examines differences among the proposals, and evaluates them against key principles like affordability, provision of essential services, financial protection, streamlined administration, and fair financing. Links to full report, chart pack, issue brief and news release

PresidentialRX.com Health Care Reform Website Launched

Health Care and the Presidential Race
The Health Care Solutions Group, 01/08The Health Care Solutions Group, sponsored by Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Nashville Health Care Council, is a new institute intended to bring health care, business and government leaders together to lead and support improvement in the U.S. health care system. It is designed to facilitate the development of solutions to the challenges we face in our health care system, as well as lead and support action to test, demonstrate and implement change that will make a difference. The group has launched a web site, PresidentialRX.com, to provide voters with information on the health care proposals of all 2008 presidential candidates, with a focus on how the health care proposals of the candidates will affect individuals, families, and employers across the country. The site provides a matrix to compare the health care plans of the candidates, describes what they mean in user-friendly terminology, and includes additional resources and links to news items to allow voters to follow the candidates and their health care views throughout the campaign.