The Federal–State Balancing Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has significantly expanded access to health insurance and health care, but some states have benefited more than others. According to a new Commonwealth report from health policy experts Sara Collins and Jeanne Lambrew, that’s largely because of the way the ACA splits responsibility for implementing its reforms between the federal government and the states. Debate over federal and state roles in health care is likely to be prominent in the 2020 presidential campaign.
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| | States’ flexibility in how they implement the Affordable Care Act has resulted in pronounced geographic variations in health insurance coverage and access to care.
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How a New Health Coverage Rule Could Affect the Marketplaces
A new Trump administration rule that would allow employers to offer individual, tax-preferred accounts so employees can buy health coverage on their own could mean less comprehensive coverage and increased taxpayer costs, write JoAnn Volk and Kevin Lucia of Georgetown University in a To the Point post.
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New Return on Investment Calculator Is Launched
Health care organizations are starting to partner with a variety of community-based organizations to help meet the needs of patients with complex, costly health conditions who require supportive housing, transportation, and other types of nonmedical assistance. The Commonwealth Fund’s new Return on Investment Calculator helps organizations along on this journey. Developed by Dr. Victor Tabbush of UCLA and based on work conducted by the SCAN Foundation, the calculator is a planning tool to help organizations estimate the risks and rewards of investing in health-related social needs.
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Erosion of Employer Coverage Puts Financial Burden on Medicare Beneficiaries
Since fewer employers are providing supplemental health coverage for their retirees, more Medicare beneficiaries must purchase it on their own. This can be a struggle for those with limited incomes. In a new brief for the Commonwealth Fund, Karen Davis, professor emerita at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues examined coverage trends for Medicare beneficiaries between 2010 and 2016 and suggest policy solutions to limit their out-of-pocket spending.
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Is Relief from High Drug Prices on the Way?
The high cost of prescription drugs has created financial hardships, as well as health consequences, for millions of Americans. Experts offer their takes on proposed legislation to help on the Commonwealth Fund’s To the Point:
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Billy Wynne of the Wynne Group and coauthors provide details about the range of legislative activity under way, including Senate and House proposals aimed at increasing transparency, addressing antitrust issues, improving access to generic drugs, and reforming Medicare Part D.
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The Commonwealth Fund’s Lovisa Gustafsson highlights what the current crop of bills leaves out, including ways to combat the high launch prices of drugs, like a system for evaluating the incremental clinical benefit of new medicines and factoring that information in pricing decisions.
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Health System Performance and Costs | |
New Blog Post Series on Key Measures of Health System Performance Launched
Americans are living shorter lives than they did a decade ago. In the first of a series of posts on To the Point examining key measures of U.S. health system performance, the Commonwealth Fund’s David Radley looks at one of the underlying reasons for this troubling trend: people in the United States are dying prematurely from treatable conditions at higher rates.
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The Commonwealth Fund Annual Report Is Here
2018 was a special year for the Commonwealth Fund: the foundation started by Anna Harkness as World War I was ending celebrated its centennial. In our 2018 Annual Report, you can learn about the Fund’s recent efforts to advance access to high-quality, affordable health care for all.
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Fund VP Sara Collins Named to Notable Women in Health Care List
Sara R. Collins, the Commonwealth Fund’s vice president for Health Care Coverage and Access, was named one of Crain’s New York Business’s Notable Women in Health Care 2019. Collins, a health economist, also directs the Fund’s Tracking Health System Performance research initiative. She has led several multiyear national surveys on health insurance, published numerous papers on health coverage, health reform, and the Affordable Care Act, and provided invited testimony before congressional committees and subcommittees.
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