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The Commonwealth Fund Connection

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




January 21, 2022

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Doubling the Pace of COVID-19 Boosters Could Save 41,000 Lives
With the COVID-19 Omicron variant overwhelming the U.S. health care system, researchers from the Commonwealth Fund and the Yale School of Public Health found that doubling the daily pace of COVID-19 booster shots from January through April 2022 (from the December 2021 rate) could prevent approximately 41,000 deaths and more than 400,000 hospitalizations. On To the Point, the authors highlight the urgent need to administer boosters as quickly as possible to all eligible.

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Boosters, Omicron, and What’s Next: Podcast
While the Omicron variant may cause milder illness, its transmissibility and ability to evade vaccines make this surge challenging to navigate. On the latest episode of The Dose podcast, host Shanoor Seervai asks Yale University’s Alison Galvani to bring listeners up to speed on this phase of the pandemic. Vaccination is relatively inexpensive, particularly compared with the costs associated with hospitalizations and productivity losses, even from mild cases, she says.

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Costs of Employer Health Insurance Keep Rising: State-by-State Report
Employer health insurance coverage has been relatively stable in recent years, falling only slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic. But costs for coverage are on the rise, and they’re taking a bigger bite out of workers’ paychecks. A new Commonwealth Fund report finds that over the past decade, incomes have not kept pace with health insurance costs. In 37 states, premium contributions and deductibles together ate up 10 percent or more of median household income in 2020.

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Evaluating Health Policy Through a Racial Equity Lens
A new Commonwealth Fund report asserts that we lack tools for examining how the policymaking process may be adding to or reducing racial inequities in health and health care. Author Jamila Michener, codirector of the Cornell Center for Health Equity, offers a conceptual framework for systematically assessing health policy through the lens of racial equity and offers core questions to ask when examining a given policy. “Comprehensively evaluating health policy in terms of racial equity necessitates examining policy as a process, not just an output,” she says.

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Helping Students of Color Afford Medical Education
Large financial debt discourages many would-be doctors of color from attending medical school. Meharry Medical College, one of the country’s few remaining historically Black medical schools, recently gave a
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third of its CARES Act funding to students training to become doctors, dentists, and public health researchers: $10,000 for each student. A Commonwealth Fund report published last year described how eight academic medical centers are working to
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recruit more medical students of color and other efforts to promote health equity.
Apply Now for the Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership
The
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Pozen-Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Health Equity Leadership at Yale University is currently
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accepting applications. The deadline is January 31, 2022. The fellowship is a 22-month M.B.A.-degree–granting program that covers the cost of the
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M.B.A. for Executives program and gives health care practitioners the leadership skills and the deep understanding of teams, markets, and organizations necessary to tackle major inequities in the U.S. health care system. Get to know the Yale M.B.A. for Executives:
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see who the students are,
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read the blog, attend an upcoming
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event, or
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request a pre-assessment to determine your fit for the program. Reach out to our partners at
mailto:[email protected]?subject=
[email protected] with questions.

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The Build Back Better Act Would Improve Health Care Coverage, But Its Fate Is Uncertain
The Build Back Better Act (BBBA), currently stalled in the Senate, would significantly improve health care coverage for many Americans. In addition to establishing Medicare hearing coverage, lowering drug prices, and addressing health-impacting social needs like housing and childcare, the legislation would improve Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage by subsidizing premiums and reducing cost sharing. Health law expert Timothy Jost explains why failure to pass the BBBA could lead to hundreds of thousands of adults losing their coverage or paying more for benefits.

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The Promise of the Build Back Better Act for America’s Health Care
While legislators waver and the media buzzes, we may be losing sight of a crucial moment in U.S. health care history, writes Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D. The Build Back Better Act may be our last chance for decades to move the country toward universal health coverage, Blumenthal says.

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Proposed Rule for ACA Marketplaces Aims to Improve Access and Advance Health Equity
In a further reversal of Trump administration health policies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a rule that would reinstate Affordable Care Act provisions that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, facilitate consumer choice, and ensure adequate provider networks. Health law expert Timothy Jost explains how the proposed rule articulates the Biden administration’s vision for increasing access to public coverage, advancing health equity, and enhancing consumer protections.

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What’s Next on Biden’s Health Policy Agenda?
During 2021, the Biden administration took several actions to increase access to affordable, comprehensive insurance coverage and promote health equity. Georgetown University’s Katie Keith reviews those policy changes and tees up what might be next on the agenda. New goals include fixing the “family glitch,” which would extend marketplace subsidies to the estimated 5.1 million low-income people who don’t qualify for help, and limiting the availability of short-term plans that discriminate against people with preexisting conditions.

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How Alternative Payment Models Can Help Community Health Centers Improve Patient Care
Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) — community clinics that provide care to all, regardless of ability to pay — are often not considered in the design of alternative payment models intended to reward providers for delivering high-value care. The latest Transforming Care profiles FQHCs that have begun dipping their toes into new payment approaches by joining programs run by their state Medicaid agencies, Medicaid managed care organizations, or Medicare. Their experiences suggest that alternative payment approaches can provide more revenue and flexibility to deliver care to high-need patients. Still, health centers may need additional support to succeed.

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How Would Medicare Coverage of Aduhelm Affect Patients and Costs?
Medicare officials have proposed conditional coverage of Aduhelm, the expensive — and controversial — drug for treating mild Alzheimer’s disease. On To the Point, the Commonwealth Fund’s Gretchen Jacobson and Aimee Cicchiello examine the potential impacts of Medicare coverage of the new drug, which has an annual price of $28,200 for the average patient. Medicare beneficiaries who qualify would be responsible for 20 percent of the total cost of treatment.

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