Health Care Voices

Resources and Reports

Reports

New Edition of "Covering Health Issues" Now Available

The newest edition of the Alliance for Health Reform's 300-page guide, "Covering Health Issues," is now available for downloading. The book, the seventh in a series, was made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Popular with journalists, the guide is useful for anyone interested in health policy issues. Each chapter contains key facts, an overview, expert sources with telephone numbers, story ideas, helpful websites and a discussion of current policy proposals for all of these topics:

The uninsured
Private health coverage
Children's health coverage
Medicare
Medicare prescription drugs
Medicaid
Long-term care
Health care costs
Quality and health information technology
Disparities
Mental health
Public health

Extras include a step-by-step primer on the congressional budget process, tips on covering health issues for TV and radio, and a list of websites where you can find public opinion polls on health issues. You will also find a glossary of terms related to health coverage.

Employee Benefit Research Institute: Workers' Health Insurance: Trends, Issues and Options to Expand Coverage (Acrobat 170k)

In recent years, employer-sponsored health insurance has been eroding. An increasing number of working adults are without health insurance coverage, and forecasts indicate continuing declines in coverage. To reverse these trends and expand coverage for workers and their families, a range of public and private policy options are under discussion. The approaches vary in the extent to which they would build on the employment-based system, adapt the non-group or individual market, or expand public programs. Many health coverage expansion policies would combine public and private approaches. Proposals in the 109th Congress addressed four major options: expansion of tax credits; creation of new federal-state roles in regulating insurance markets; expansion of purchasing options for small firms; and expansion of public programs for the under-65 population.

The Commonwealth Fund: On the Fringe: The Substandard Benefits of Workers in Part-Time, Temporary, and Contract Jobs (Acrobat, 262k)

This report focuses on the intersection of two important trends in the U.S. workforce: the increasing prevalence of workers in "nonstandard" jobs-that is, those in part-time, temporary, or contract positions-and the decline in access to employer-provided health insurance. While the ongoing crisis in employer-sponsored health insurance-with fewer and fewer individuals covered under such policies and the quality of coverage diminished by higher premiums, copayments, and deductibles-has garnered much attention, there has been little focus on the status of workers in nonstandard work arrangements. These workers are particularly vulnerable-their sporadic employment status often excludes them from employer-based coverage, increasing their reliance on family members' policies or public coverage or leaving them without insurance altogether. This report compares coverage trends between standard and nonstandard workers and across different categories of nonstandard workers, and ultimately offers policy options to reach these uninsured, nonstandard workers and their families.

OECD Health Data 2008: How Does the United States Compare (Acrobat, 15k)

Summary of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Health Data for the United States. More information is available at OECD Health Data 2008: Statistics and Indicators for 30 Countries

Annals of Internal Medicine: High and Rising Health Care Costs