Programs that offer public health coverage to kids are crucial to boosting the number of insured kids, but they're often not enough. Research suggests that parents' insurance status is a really strong predictor of whether their kids are covered. Policy wonks call it the "welcome mat effect."
A recent White House report noted that there is no evidence that state-by-state licensing improves quality or safety. And yet we have a 50-state system for doctors and for most other health care professionals. Is broad reform possible?
Strict professional licensing rules don't necessarily translate into higher-quality work, as a recent report from the White House made clear. Might there be a smarter way? One option: directly regulate the companies that employ the people who are being subject to licensure.
I’d been going to the same woman to cut my hair for five years, and she was always the picture of calm. Until the day she looked at the front door as it was opening and said to me, “I have to run.” Then, her face the picture of panic, she ran.
Obamacare has strongly encouraged the creation of accountable care organizations, which focus on coordinating patient care so that, in theory, wasteful practices are eliminated and money is saved. But the early results have been mixed.
Are high schoolers who use e-cigarettes more likely to turn into smokers? New research published this week strongly suggests that's the case, but the study can't prove one causes the other. Meanwhile, laws preventing the sale of such devices to minors haven't done much to curb their spread.
Is health insurance ripe for disruption by newer, tech-savvy market players? Oscar, a newcomer to the California health insurance exchange, certainly hopes so, and has the market valuation to back it up. But will the company's growth and innovation largely be limited to tech-savvy millennials?
Health rankings published in recent years have made it clear that there’s a lot of work to do in Wyandotte County, Kansas, which has some of the worst health outcomes in the state, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A troubled California database that allows doctors to check which patients are already receiving potentially addictive prescriptions is currently being relaunched. But one doctor argues that the state needs to do far more to stem prescription drug deaths than simply revamp CURES.
There has been a lot of rhetoric about the value of community health workers, but such programs don't always work as well as they could. Some basic guidelines could go a long way toward ensuring such workers contribute to the health of patients, particularly those with chronic diseases.
