Policy Prescriptions ® | The Evidence-Based Health Policy™ Experts

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

The cost-reductions built into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) are based upon the assumption that as the number of uninsured decreases, the need for federal subsidies to hospitals providing uncompensated care will also [...]

January 26, 2015 // 0 Comments

Source: F. Antolín Hernández (Flickr/CC)

The Times Are Not A-Changin’

When President Barack Obama first ran for president in 2008, universal health care seemed like a real possibility. Fast forward seven years later: Employer-sponsored health care is still the main game in town. Has the Affordable Care Act impacted [...]

January 24, 2015 // 0 Comments

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District (Flickr/CC)

Give the people what they want

Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for Medicaid benefits was expanded to include low-income childless adults. This provision has proven to be immensely controversial, however, and 23 states have refused to accept it*. A survey published in [...]

January 19, 2015 // 0 Comments

Global Payments Change Spending & Quality

In an effort to slow the growth of health care spending, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Massachusetts, an early reform state, entered into alternative quality contracts (AQC) with providers. AQCs are two-sided contracts that share savings if [...]

January 17, 2015 // 1 Comment

Is sex safer?

Emergency contraception (EC) is a safe, moderately effective option to prevent an unintended pregnancy. It is one of the FDA-approved, family planning options that health insurance plans are required to cover without any copayment through the [...]

January 12, 2015 // 0 Comments

1 2 3 … 95 »