The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
March 28, 2021
Presented By WEX
The US presidency and both houses of Congress have taken on a new, blue look since the 2018 midterms. Democrats first took the House of Representatives, then in 2020 won the presidency and control of the Senate. What does this mean for health care and benefits? Learn more>>
Dear John,
Read on for highlights from Health Affairs this week.
Public Health Spending, Graduate Medical Education & More
In an article released ahead of print this week, Natalia Alfonso and coauthors assessed total spending and spending for specific public health categories at the state level from 2008 to 2018, capturing state spending trends both during and after the Great Recession. They observed flat or downward trends for total state public health spending and for spending in each of the categories of public health activities, except for an increase in spending for injury prevention. Maternal, child, and family health saw the largest drop in spending of all the categories.
This week marked the eleven-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). One criticism the law has received is that the health coverage offered through the ACA Marketplaces has high levels of deductibles and copayments, leaving care unaffordable to many. Charles Liu and coauthors analyzed expenditure survey data and found sizable reductions in the cost burden of health care for low-income Marketplace enrollees. Low-income adult enrollees experienced a 17.2 percent decline in out-of-pocket spending and an almost one-third drop in the likelihood of having catastrophic health expenditures across the study period of 2008 to 2017.
Sunita M. Desai
and coauthors discuss the impact of an online informational advertising campaign for NH HealthCost, the publicly available price transparency website developed by the state of New Hampshire.
Kevin Callison and colleagues compare changes in uncompensated care costs as a share of total operating expenses for hospitals in Louisiana with those in hospitals in nonexpansion states before and after Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion. Expansion in
Louisiana was associated with a 33 percent reduction in the share of total operating expenses attributable to uncompensated care costs for general medical and surgical hospitals, with the greatest reductions in rural and public hospitals.
This Benefits Buzz podcast episode and blog post covers post-election health care topics, such as Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, the future of HSAs, and potential rollbacks of the Trump agenda. Learn more>>>
Do Teams Work Better Than Solo Providers? Spoiler Alert: Yes Listen to Alan Weil interview Maximilian Pany and Lucy Chen, both MD-PhD candidates in health policy at Harvard Medical School, on their research, which found that provider teams outperformed solo providers in managing chronic diseases.
Podcast: Elevating Women's Voices In Health Policy During Women's History Month Listen to Vabren Watts and Jessica Bylander discuss Women's History Month, all the great work women have contributed to the Health Affairs community, and the latest on COVID-19 vaccines and their impact on pregnant women.
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewedjournalat 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.
