|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A Weekly Health Policy Round Up From Health Affairs
March 29, 2020
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THIS WEEK ON THE BLOGCOVID-19
Custodial Staff Protect Us From COVID-19, But Who Is Protecting Them?
By LaShyra T. Nolen (3/27/20)
For many of us, the spread of coronavirus is unprecedented territory. Every day it feels like we are on the brink of new knowledge that will lead us closer to quelling its spread. My only hope is that as we translate our discoveries into solutions, we support those who are on the front lines valiantly defending our society’s health one cleaning at a time. Read More >>
Part I: What Are Foundations Doing In The Fight Against COVID-19?
By Lee-Lee Prina (3/26/20)
More and more health philanthropies around the United States are stepping up to help people during this difficult time: sometimes by awarding grants, sometimes with useful information. Look for Part II to be published next week. Read More >
Senate Passes COVID-19 Package #3: The Coverage Provisions
By Katie Keith
(3/26/20)
Late last night, the US Senate—by a vote of 96 to 0—passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), a $2.2 trillion package to address the coronavirus crisis. Read More >>
Correctional Facilities In The Shadow Of COVID-19: Unique Challenges And Proposed Solutions
By Brie Williams, Cyrus Ahalt, David Cloud, Dallas Augustine, Leah Rorvig, and David Sears (3/26/20)
Failure to mount an adequate response to potential COVID-19 outbreaks throughout the nation’s jails and prisons has the potential to devastate the health and well-being of incarcerated Americans, the nation’s correctional workforce, and people living in the thousands of communities in which our jails and prisons are located. Read More >>
To Help Develop The Safest, Most Effective Coronavirus Tests, Treatments, And Vaccines, Ensure Public Access To Clinical Research Data
By Christopher J. Morten, Amy Kapczynski, Harlan M. Krumholz, and Joseph S. Ross (3/26/20)
To address the COVID-19 pandemic that is bearing down on the United States, the public urgently needs new diagnostics,
treatments, and vaccines. However, to be confident that any new technologies are safe and effective, we need public access to clinical research data and other information on these technologies. Read More >>
To Save Staff And Supplies,
Designate Specialized COVID-19 Referral Centers
By Daniel Liebman and Nisarg Patel (3/25/20)
Hospitals around the nation are frantically preparing for a surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks, but even with the most aggressive measures, the trajectory of positive cases tells us that increasing internal capacity and resources won't be enough. Read More >>
Saving COVID-19 Testing For Those Who Really Need It
By Michael R. Fraser and Scott Becker (3/23/20)
There are three priority groups of people who have special needs to get tested for COVID-19: health care workers and COVID-19 first responders, symptomatic older Americans, and patients whose clinicians recommend they get tested for COVID-19. Not in this group? You do not need a test. Read More >>
FOLLOWING THE ACA
CMS
Could Do More In Light Of The Coronavirus Crisis
By Katie Keith (3/26/20)
This post identifies a non-exhaustive list of actions that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) could take now under the agency’s existing legal authority. Given that Congress has taken only limited steps to address coverage-related issues in its coronavirus packages so far, CMS should do much more to leverage its existing authority to protect consumers. Read More >>
Happy Tenth Birthday, Obamacare: This Crisis Would Be Much Worse Without You
By Abbe R. Gluck and Erica Turret (3/24/20)
The pandemic reveals the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in action as a broad safety net for those who have lost their jobs, or their work-provided coverage, and need access to medical care. It has also shown us the value of the kind of coordinated federal response to coverage and care that we can thank the ACA for. Read More >>
ACA Round-Up: Coronavirus Guidance, PA 1332 Waiver, EDE, And More
By Katie Keith (3/23/20)
This post summarizes recent Affordable Care Act–related coronavirus guidance, Pennsylvania’s application for a waiver under Section 1332, new information on enhanced direct enrollment, and new Marketplace materials as insurers prepare for the 2021 plan year. Read More >>
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
You’re Doing It Wrong: What Changes In Medicaid And SNAP Reveal About The Trump Administration’s Investment In The Social Determinants Of Health
By Taylor Cowey and Josh LaRosa (3/24/20)
Those hoping
to impact the social determinants of health must mobilize to protect and strengthen the existing social safety net and to push this administration and the next to leverage the federal programs that can make a difference for the largest number of people in need. Read More >>
HOSPITALS
Regulating Out-Of-Network Hospital Emergency Prices: Problem And Potential Benchmarks
By Glenn Melnick and Katya Fonkych (3/23/20)
This post focuses on the need and options to regulate hospital out-of-network emergency prices. We use data from California to conduct a detailed analysis of the need to regulate hospital out-of-network emergency prices and potential benchmarks for setting such prices. Read More >>
MEDICARE
Medicare For All: The Social Transformation Of US Health Care
By Peter S. Arno and Philip Caper (3/25/20)
The US public and,
increasingly, the business community are becoming acutely aware of the rising costs and inadequacies of our current system. Read More >>
Medicare’s Current And Future Role In Reducing Racial And Ethnic Health
Disparities
By Renée M. Landers, Bruce Vladeck, and Bethany K. Cole (3/23/20)
Improving access to affordable, high-quality health coverage and care for all Americans remains one of the nation’s formidable policy challenges. Read More >>
LEGAL AND REGULATORY ISSUES
Beyond Bans: How Cannabis Policy Reform Can Reduce Vaping-Related Illnesses
By Amanda Mauri and Rebecca Haffajee (3/26/20)
If the costs associated with new regulatory requirements are so great that the legal industry cannot compete with the illegal market, policy makers could risk encouraging the survival of the illicit industry—especially if states do not increase enforcement against the illegal market. Read More >>
ACCESS TO CARE
‘Self-Service’ And Self-Management Shouldn’t Mean Patients Fend
For Themselves
By Katelyn Smalley
App-based medicine will only work if it builds on existing connections, rather than severing them. Read More >>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IN THE JOURNAL
AHEAD OF PRINT
National Health Expenditure Projections, 2019–28: Expected Rebound In Prices Drives Rising Spending Growth
By Sean P. Keehan, Gigi A. Cuckler, John A. Poisal, Andrea M. Sisko, Sheila D. Smith, Andrew J. Madison, Kathryn E. Rennie, Jacqueline A. Fiore, and James C. Hardesty
New estimates released today from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project an average annual rate of national health spending growth of 5.4 percent for 2019–28, outpacing average projected growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) by 1.1 percentage points. As a result, the health share of the economy is projected
to climb to 19.7 percent by 2028—up from 17.7 percent in 2018. Read More >>
|
|
|
|
|
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
The ACA Turns 10: Reflections Of Four Industry Leaders
By Alan R. Weil
Alan Weil sat down with Matt Eyles, Nancy Nielsen, Rick Pollack, and Billy Tauzin, representing health plans, physicians, hospitals, and the pharmaceutical industry, respectively, to reflect on the Affordable Care Act’s successes, its shortcomings, and the politics leading to its passage. Read More >>
The Past, Present, And Possible Future Of Public Opinion On The ACA
By Mollyann Brodie, Elizabeth C. Hamel, Ashley Kirzinger, and Drew E. Altman
When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law in 2010, public opinion of it was narrowly divided and deeply partisan. Mollyann Brodie and coauthors analyzed data from 102 nationally representative public opinion polls that were conducted between April 2010 and November 2019 as part of the ongoing Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll. They found that while the ACA is now more popular than ever, opinions remain divided, and partisan divisions have gotten larger rather than smaller over time. Read More >>
Closing The Medicaid Coverage Gap: Options For Reform
By Sara Rosenbaum and Gail Wilensky
How to
provide coverage for the poorest Americans who remain ineligible for Medicaid but too poor for subsidized private health insurance—closing the Medicaid coverage gap—represents the biggest piece of unfinished business under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Read More >>
A Pathway To Consumer-Driven Universal Coverage
By Avik Roy
With the right modifications, the individual market could protect Americans with preexisting conditions, provide affordable coverage to the remaining uninsured people, and offer better choices for those with more traditional coverage. To achieve these goals, policy makers must first understand the ACA’s design flaws. Read More >>
How The ACA Reframed The Prescription Drug Market And Set The Stage For Current Reform Efforts
By Rena Conti, Stacie B. Dusetzina, and Rachel Sachs
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) contained a range of provisions that altered prescription drug access and affordability for patients, payers, and providers. Rena Conti and coauthors consider how things have changed in the decade after the ACA’s passage and how some missed opportunities in the ACA’s passage figure
prominently in the current drug pricing debate. Read More >>
Building On The Gains Of The ACA: Federal Proposals To Improve Coverage And Affordability
By Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Elizabeth Fowler, and Gayle Mauser
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly improved health insurance coverage in the US, but many Americans remain under- or uninsured. Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Elizabeth Fowler, and Gayle Mauser examine federal strategies under consideration that build on the ACA to extend comprehensive coverage to all low-income Americans and increase coverage affordability for middle-income Americans. Read More >>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
About Health Affairs
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
Copyright © Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
Health Affairs, 7500 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 600, Bethesda, MD 20814, United States
Privacy Policy
|
|
|
|
|
