Wednesday, June 22, 2022 | The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
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Register today for the next Health Affairs Policy Spotlight, featuring Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
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Job Flexibility And Health
Many recent policy efforts have focused on workplace flexibility.
Laws addressing paid sick leave have become more
prevalent in the past decade and temporary emergency paid sick leave was a key part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021—the most significant expansion of paid sick leave in US history.
Thomas Hegland and Terceira Berdahl investigate the role of job flexibility—including both its informal aspects and
access to paid sick leave—in health care access and use.
Using data from 2017–19, the authors find, consistent with prior studies, that receiving paid sick leave as an employee benefit was positively associated with health care access and use.
The authors also indicate in their findings that Black and Hispanic workers, as well as workers with low-wage jobs, had less job flexibility and less access to paid sick leave.
“Variations in job characteristics may be mechanisms generating disparities in health care access and use,” they add.
For more content on the social determinants of health, become a Health Affairs Insider to receive the monthly Social Determinants of Health newsletter.
Rueben Warren and Mark Mitchell write that many US children are still receiving mercury-laden dental fillings rather than safer composites, more than a year after the Food and Drug Administration asked dentists to stop using amalgam.
Katie Keith discusses Supreme Court decisions through June 21, focusing on Medicare payment cuts to 340B hospitals, employers’ coverage of dialysis, disability discrimination by health care providers, state recoupment of settlement funds for Medicaid programs, and the public charge rule.
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