Nerds and Wonks who need a data fix can look to Health Affairs for answers. Published bi-monthly by Project Hope the peer-reviewed journal "explores health policy issues of current concern". Some recent online abstracts and numerous links from the journal are presented below the fold.
I have been reading Health Affairs for years. Scholarly studies, peer-reviewed before publication, and op-ed pieces are current and topical. I highly recommend that health-care nerds and wonks subscribe to the Health Affairs E-Alerts
Here are some abstracts and links from today's E-Alert:
Hospital Costs and Quality
Measuring Efficiency: The Association Of Hospital Costs And Quality Of Care
Ashish K. Jha, E. John Orav, Allen Dobson, Robert A. Book and Arnold M. Epstein
Providers with lower costs may be more efficient and, therefore, provide better care than those with higher costs. However, the relationship between risk-adjusted costs (often described as efficiency) and quality is not well understood. We examined the relationship between hospitals’ risk-adjusted costs and their structural characteristics, nursing levels, quality of care, and outcomes. U.S. hospitals with low risk-adjusted costs were more likely to be for-profit, treat more Medicare patients, and employ fewer nurses. They provided modestly worse care for acute myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure but had comparable rates of risk-adjusted mortality. We found no evidence that low-cost providers provide better care.
Affordability of Health Insurance
Wealth, Income, And The Affordability Of Health Insurance
Didem M. Bernard, Jessica S. Banthin and William E. Encinosa
There have been debates over how many uninsured people can afford insurance but refuse to purchase it. Examining the difference in asset holdings between the privately insured and the uninsured, we found that the difference in purchasing power is not fully revealed by income comparisons. Median income among the privately insured is 2.9 times that of the uninsured, but median wealth among those with private insurance is 23.2 times that of the uninsured. Our results suggest that assets are an important determinant of effective affordability, undermining the notion that many people are uninsured by choice.
Will Americans Support the Individual Mandate?
Will Americans Support The Individual Mandate?
Tara Sussman, Robert J. Blendon and Andrea Louise Campbell
An individual mandate is an important feature of many recent plans to achieve universal health insurance coverage in the United States, without radically changing the way most Americans get health care and coverage. Using national public opinion data, we find that on its own, an individual mandate does not have broad support across partisan and sociodemographic groups. Policymakers who choose to pursue an individual mandate for policy reasons may expand the base of supporters by incorporating it into a "shared-responsibility" plan that includes requirements for employers, government, and insurers.
Some full text online articles are also available as "web-exclusives" without a subscription here.
Health Policy Briefs are produced in association with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The April 29, 2009 brief evaluates the options for "reforming" the Medicare (dis)Advantage Plans.
Medicare Advantage Plans:
Almost 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries is in a private Medicare health insurance plan. Studies show these plans are paid more than traditional Medicare. A debate is under way over cutting payments.
And finally, what is a good website without the blogs. Read, get mad, muse then discuss quietly among yourselves.
This is mostly a links diary. Maybe you find it useful, maybe not. The healthcare reform debate is contentious with every party espousing their own version of the truth. Health Affairs is one more source of information I highly recommend.