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A Weekly Health Policy Round-Up From Health Affairs
November 1, 2020
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THIS WEEK ON THE BLOG
COVID-19
The COVID-19 Pandemic Can Help Us Understand Low-Value Health Care
By Allison H. Oakes and Jodi B. Segal (10/27/20)
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a novel sense of scarcity, which has forced health systems to cut profitable services and prioritize seriously ill
patients. At the same time, it has revealed a previously unseen counterfactual: a health system in which there is no low-value care. These circumstances can be leveraged to advance the low-value care research agenda. Read More >>
COVID-19 And Health Disparities: Insights From Key Informant Interviews
By Harold A. Pollack and Caroline Kelly (10/27/20)
More than 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19; more than eight million have been infected. No part of the US has been fully spared, but the burdens are
unequally distributed. This post draws upon key informant interviews with physicians, nursing and medical leaders, epidemiologists and health services researchers, and policy scholars to explore causes of these disparities and to examine proposed solutions. Read More >>
Against Weighted Lotteries For Scarce COVID-19 Treatments
By Joseph Millum (10/26/20)
Weighted lotteries to allocate scarce COVID-19 treatments and vaccines give the appearance of balancing competing ethical
considerations. But, as I will show, they actually lead to unjust outcomes. Read More >>
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FOLLOWING THE ACA
New COVID-19 Rule Addresses Coverage, Medicaid Waivers
By Katie Keith (10/30/20)
A new federal interim final rule with comment period addresses coverage policies for a not-yet-developed COVID-19 vaccine and offers an option for states to request modifications to public comment requirements for state innovation waivers. Read More >>
Honoring The Ever-Prolific Tim Jost
By Abbe Gluck and Sara Rosenbaum (10/29/20)
It is our privilege to introduce this Health Affairs Blog short series celebrating the pioneering work of Timothy Stoltzfus Jost. Perhaps no other legal scholar has touched more areas of the field, or done more to explain the field to generations of lawyers, health policy makers, practitioners, and government officials. Read More >>
ACCESS TO CARE
Will Connectivity
Be The Next Cure? Health Care Implications Of 5G Cellular Technologies
By Faiz Gani (10/30/20)
The potential implications of 5G cellular technology within health care remain unexplored. Targeted policies aiming to facilitate safe and equal access to technologies leveraging 5G will be pivotal to the success of these technologies in improving quality and access to care.
Read More >>
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MEDICAID
AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
How Much Has The Number of Uninsured Risen Since 2016—And At What Cost To Health And Life?
By Adam Gaffney, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler (10/29/20)
Declining insurance coverage during the Trump administration has come at a heavy cost in physical and mental health, financial security, and loss of life. If the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act, 19.9 million individuals could lose health coverage. The life and health ramifications of this case—and of November’s election—are enormous. Read More >>
SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
A Business Case For Improving The Well-Being Of Essential Shift Workers
By Megan McHugh, Claude R. Maechling, and Jane L. Holl (10/29/20)
Essential workers are more likely to do shift work—outside of traditional daytime work hours. Numerous studies have shown that such work is associated with higher rates of many chronic diseases.
Such underlying conditions increase the risk for serious illness from COVID-19. A foundation-funded study estimated the health effects, and excess health care costs incurred per year, for 2,600 workers doing shift work at a manufacturing company. The authors have suggestions for employers relying on shift workers. Read More >>
TELEHEALTH
Too Many Rural Americans Are Living In The Digital Dark. The Problem Demands A New Deal Solution
By Mark E. Dornauer and Robert Bryce (10/28/20)
Now is the time for a new federal program that will energize rural broadband in the same way that the New Deal brought electricity to rural America and will bring rural patients out of the digital dark. Read More >>
LEGAL & REGULATORY ISSUES
Honoring Tim Jost: The Legal Services Years
By James Weill (10/29/20)
Tim Jost came to work at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago 45 years ago, in 1975. Much of Tim’s focus was on the Uptown community, at the time a classic example of a predominantly low-income neighborhood feeling the impacts of the great 1960s and 1970s wave of deinstitutionalization. Read More >>
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IN THE JOURNAL
CHILDREN'S HEALTH
Children’s Health Insurance Coverage: Progress, Problems, And Priorities For 2021 And Beyond
By Joan C. Alker, Genevieve M. Kenney, and Sara Rosenbaum
Despite significant coverage gains between 2008 and 2015, the proportion of children in the US with health insurance has fallen in recent years. Observing that "policy makers have made enormous strides in coverage of children, but there is still a distance to go," Joan Alker and coauthors propose strategies ranging from a unified, national program to policies that expand on Medicaid, CHIP, and the ACA Marketplaces. Read More
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Racial And Ethnic Inequities In Children’s Neighborhoods: Evidence
From The New Child Opportunity Index 2.0
By Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Clemens Noelke, Nancy McArdle, Nomi Sofer, Erin F. Hardy, Michelle Weiner, Mikyung Baek, Nick Huntington, Rebecca Huber, and Jason Reece
Dolores Acevedo-Garcia and coauthors present and analyze the Child Opportunity Index 2.0, a composite measure of children’s neighborhood opportunity. Inequities are profound, with an overall Child Opportunity Score of 73 for White children compared with 33 for Hispanic children and 24 for Black children in the largest 100 metropolitan areas. Read More >>
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New podcast! In this episode of A Health Podyssey, Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil interviews Brandeis
University’s Dolores Acevedo-Garcia to discuss her research on racial and ethnic inequities in children’s neighborhoods.
Listen here.
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Economy-Sensitive Conditions: Are Some Pediatric Hospitalizations Triggered By Economic Recessions?
By Jeffrey D. Colvin, Troy Richardson, Donna K. Ginther, Matt Hall, and Paul J. Chung
Jeffrey Colvin and colleagues examine associations between county-level unemployment and pediatric hospitalizations in fourteen states every third year from 2002 to 2014. Read More >>
GRANTWATCH
Funding Children's Health: COVID-19 And Beyond
By Lee L. Prina
The October 2020 GrantWatch column follows the children's health theme of that Health Affairs issue. The column highlights selected foundations' efforts around the country to improve children's health related to the pandemic and more. Subjects covered include food insecurity, mental health, home visiting, emergency child care, COVID-19 in Africa, national paid family leave policy, childhood trauma, and more. In the Key Personnel Change section, read about the temporary move to state government by Sandra Shewry of the California Health Care Foundation. Read More >>
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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.
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