Has Medicaid expansion improved preconception health?
Health care in the time immediately before a woman gets pregnant is critical for her and her infant, yet not all women have access to health insurance during this time. Policies for Action researchers found that expanded health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act led to improvements in preconception health and health counseling among women with low incomes.
Should policymakers consider housing a health intervention?
Many health care advocates and payers hope that improving housing quality can help reduce health care costs and improve health outcomes. But an analysis from Policies for Action researcher Sherry Glied finds surprisingly weak evidence supporting this concept. Because most housing-quality-related health problems have multiple causes, intervening in housing alone will not fully eliminate these problems. The article raises further concerns that lackluster health outcomes as a result of housing renovation interventions could cause underinvestment in critical social determinants that directly benefit health and well-being.
A closer look at the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program
The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program aims to provide stable and affordable housing to very low–income households. However, renters with vouchers often face discrimination, which can severely limit their housing options, and little is known about the program on a national scale. Policies for Action researchers have released a new
dataset and brief
cataloguing state and local voucher protection laws and their changes over time. They also examined two states with different approaches to voucher protections: Oregon, which prohibits discrimination against voucher holders, and Texas, which preempts local governments from adopting such protections. The researchers find that in both states, evidence of discrimination against voucher holders sparked state or local action to adopt antidiscrimination protections.
Community corner
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Data for Action (HD4A) 2020 call for proposals is now open. Through this call, HD4A will award successful applicants data access at no cost from one of eight anticipated data providers. Brief proposals are due by December 17, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. (EST).
Learn more about the call for proposals here.
