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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

A roundup of recent Fund publications, charts, multimedia, and other timely content.




August 6, 2021

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Last Among Peers: New Study Places U.S. at Bottom of Health System Rankings
According to the Commonwealth Fund’s latest international rankings, the U.S. health system trails far behind health systems in 10 high-income peer countries when it comes to affordability, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes. The report, Mirror, Mirror 2021, shows that in the United States, an individual’s chance of getting good health care depends to a large extent on income. The U.S., which spends the most per person on health care, has ranked last in every edition of the report since 2004.

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COVID-19


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How the Biden Administration Can Help Primary Care Providers Increase Vaccine Uptake
Primary care providers can play an essential role in educating patients about COVID-19 vaccines and administering them to patients. But vaccine delivery poses unique administrative and financial challenges to these providers. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Corinne Lewis and colleagues describe ways the Biden administration could help primary care providers overcome these challenges.

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Philanthropy in the Time of a Pandemic
In the 1920s, philanthropist Mary Harkness and husband Edward founded Camp Harkness in Connecticut to care for disabled victims of polio. Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D., draws a line from his childhood experience queuing up for the polio vaccine in 1950s New York City to our present-day struggles with COVID-19 — and how Harkness family support enabled work to combat both crises. By endowing the Fund, the Harkness family committed to improving the U.S. health care system, including our recent efforts to understand and defeat the pandemic.

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Other Recent Publications


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The Medicaid Saves Lives Act Can Help Make Sure All Americans Have Coverage
A dozen states have yet to expand Medicaid eligibility, leaving millions of U.S. adults without access to affordable coverage. Sara Rosenbaum, Leighton Ku, and colleagues at George Washington University show how the Medicaid Saves Lives Act, proposed by Senators Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, and Tammy Baldwin, could be part of the solution. If passed, the legislation would establish a new federal Medicaid program for adults with incomes too low to qualify for the Affordable Care Act’s tax credits for marketplace plans.

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What the Biden Administration Could Learn from States’ Efforts to Standardize Marketplace Plans
The Trump administration eliminated a federal policy establishing standardized health plan design for marketplace coverage under the ACA — an action that a federal court has since ruled illegal. Now, as the Biden administration works to restore that policy, it could learn from several states’ initiatives. Georgetown University’s Justin Giovannelli and colleagues examine how states are using plan standardization to improve access to care.

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What Can We Learn from States’ Public Option–Style Health Plans?
President Biden has called on Congress to enact a federal public health insurance option. Meanwhile, Washington, Nevada, and Colorado have already enacted their own public option–style laws. In reviewing the experiences of these states, Christine Monahan and her Georgetown University colleagues find that all three took broadly similar approaches by establishing public–private partnerships. But given the barriers states face in adopting these kinds of reforms, the authors believe federal action may be necessary for greater coverage gains and cost savings.

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States’ “Easy Enrollment” Programs Show Promise in Reducing Coverage Disparities
While the American Rescue Plan has made health insurance more affordable for millions of Americans, more innovative solutions may be needed to cover the 30 million who remain uninsured. Georgetown University’s Rachel Schwab and coauthors explore one potential solution that is gaining momentum: “easy enrollment” programs, which use state tax- or unemployment-filing processes to reach populations that disproportionately lack coverage.

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Biden Administration Takes Aim at High Prescription Drug Prices
President Biden recently signed an executive order laying out steps to improve the functioning of U.S. health care markets and lower prices. Analyst Kristi Martin examines the executive order and its provisions aimed at promoting competition in pharmaceutical markets and encouraging greater use of lower-priced generic and biosimilar drugs.

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Shortage of Home Aides Prompts Creative Solutions from Health Care Organizations
In June, Kaiser Health News and NPR reported on how a
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national shortage of home aides was making it difficult for older adults in Maine to obtain help with chores and errands, sometimes leaving them without assistance for months. The
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July issue of Transforming Care described a variety of strategies health care organizations are using to recruit and retain direct care workers, from increasing wages to offering advancement opportunities.

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Recognition for PBS Series on Health Care Around the World
A five-part NewsHour series developed by PBS with support from the Commonwealth Fund has been nominated for an Emmy for “Outstanding Health or Medical Coverage” in the news and documentary division. The series, “
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The Best Health Care? America and the World ,” takes viewers to the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, and the United States to explore the different paths to universal coverage and offer lessons on how the U.S. might move forward on health care. And a digital feature that’s part of the series, “
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What Does Health Care Cost Around the World? ,” has been honored with a Webby — awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet.







Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.

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