In May 2018, we described a comprehensive health insurance reform program that would build on the Affordable Care Act’s foundation while correcting for its shortcomings under current law. This brief updates our previous analysis of the coverage and health spending implications of the Healthy America program and analyzes two additional options.
Addressing health inequities and improving healthy life expectancy will require looking beyond traditional medical care to address health-related social needs, and the health care sector has a vital role to play in that process.
We summarize findings from in-depth interviews with 26 women about their experiences with unplanned pregnancy: how they felt when they discovered they were pregnant, what factors they considered when making a decision about the pregnancy, and how unplanned pregnancy influenced their lives.
We estimate that only 49 percent of substance use treatment facilities across New Jersey offered any form of opioid use disorder pharmacotherapy—buprenorphine, methadone, or naltrexone. Patients had a median wait time of two days for both regular and intensive outpatient services, but wait times varied widely across counties.
Although Medicare Advantage payment cuts were expected to make the program less attractive, its enrollment grew steadily from 2009 to 2017. During this time, Medicare Advantage plans reduced their costs under payment pressure without significantly affecting enrollees’ access to or affordability of care compared with traditional Medicare.