Before describing a few stories that have not received much play in the media, I'd like to mention a few publications by my Urban Institute colleagues that provide useful state and local information. One report shows, by Congressional district, the proportion of residents with various types of health coverage (uninsured, privately insured, or covered by Medicaid or other public programs).
As Congress goes into recession, the debate over healthcare hits home. But what's really happening on the reform front? Will it meet the needs of the American public? In a 5-hour special series over five days, we'll hear from doctors, hospital administrators, insurance companies, economists and average people about what's driving up healthcare costs, what it will take to make real changes, and what trade-offs people are willing to make to see meaningful reform through.
Dean Shortell is an expert on organized health delivery systems in the United States. He has done extensive research on institutional incentives for improving quality of care and health outcomes, particularly when related to the management of patients with chronic illness. He can also discuss the impact of budget cuts on the delivery of healthcare services, including community services.
As of January 2010, Richard G. Kronick is on leave from his job as professor and chief of the division of health care sciences at the UCSD School of Medicine's department of family and preventive medicine. He is serving as a deputy assistant secretary for health policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The division of health care sciences includes programs in outcome research, biostatistics, health policy, cancer prevention and medical ethics. Kronick previously served as a senior adviser to former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for two years.
Dr. R. Jan Gates is a medical anthropologist and faculty member of UCSF's Institute for Health and Aging. She has worked with research teams studying health and illness cross-culturally and through the various stages of life. Dr. Gates is currently co-investigator of a National Institute of Aging/National Institutes of Health study of chronic illness among uninsured people of color. She is principal investigator of a study of cultural issues surrounding health literacy throughout African Americans' lives.
Dr. Needleman is a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health. He was previously an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health for eight years and, for 17 year, vice president of Lewin/ICF (now The Lewin Group), a Washington, D.C. health policy research and consulting firm. He has conducted research on nurse staffing and quality of care, the health workforce, the future of public hospitals, nonprofit and for-profit health care, access to care for mental health and chronic illness.
The development of a cocktail of powerful antiretroviral drugs has transformed what was once an all-but-certain killer into a chronic illness that can be managed (at least for those who have access to treatment). In the United States, annual deaths have fallen from a peak of nearly 51,000 in 1995 to more than 14,100 in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there is still no cure or effective vaccine for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or the Human Immunodeficiency Virus that causes it.
