Commonwealth Fund News and Research

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More insurers extend premium payment deadlines

The relaxed timetables reflect efforts by the insurance industry, as well as the Obama administration, to "coax" people towards "cementing" their 2014 coverage, reports Bloomberg News. In addition, a Commonwealth survey finds more people are shopping on the new health insurance marketplaces. News outlets also report developments from Minnesota, California, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan.

9 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 9, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about how the politics of the health law continue to play out on Capitol Hill.

9 Jan 2014

Research roundup: ACA 'can survive' low enrollment; rural/urban differences in O.B. Care; teaching residents cost consciousness

The Health Reform Monitoring Survey (HRMS) was launched in 2013 as a mechanism to obtain timely information on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ... HRMS data from summer 2013 show that more than 60 percent of those targeted by the health insurance exchanges struggle with understanding key health insurance concepts.

23 Dec 2013

Get ready to pay more for health coverage, but it may not be just health law's fault

Although many blame the health law for all recent health care cost increases, trends that bump up the cost of care were in place before the law was enacted and are being driven up even more by routine costs, some say.

23 Dec 2013

First Edition: December 20, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the action taken by the administration to relax a health law requirement just four days before the deadline.

20 Dec 2013

Massachusetts residents have broader health insurance coverage, greater access to primary care

In 2006, Massachusetts was on the same brink that the entire nation is on today: the brink of expanding health insurance to cover far more people than before, through government-driven, market-based reform.

13 Dec 2013

Study helps explain why survival gap persists for African-Americans with head and neck cancer

A team of scientists at Johns Hopkins and in Texas has identified a handful of genetic mutations in black Americans, in addition to some chemical alterations affecting gene activity, which may help explain why the death rate among African-Americans from the most common form of head and neck cancer continues to hover some 18 percent higher above the death rate of whites with the same cancer.

9 Dec 2013

Refusing Medicaid expansion to cost states billions, study says

The decision not to participate will costs states billions over the next decade which will be passed onto taxpayers, according to a study by the pro-reform Commonwealth Fund.

9 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: Coping with physician shortage; 'righteous' hobby lobby cause; enrolling millennials

In just over a decade the United States will need 130,000 more doctors than medical schools are producing. So says the Association of American Medical Colleges, which warns of a doctor shortage that will drive up wait times, shorten office visits and make it harder for Americans to access the care they need (Scott Gottlieb and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 12/4).

6 Dec 2013

State exchanges report November surge

Still, reports on the ground vary -- with some states offering positive news, while others still are limping along. Here is a sampling of coverage from Kentucky, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon and Massachusetts.

26 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 25, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about how political concerns and strategies are taking shape as a result of healthcare.gov's difficulties.

25 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Obamacare has resisted death throes before; website success stories from 3 governors; health law taking a toll on choice of doctors in Medicare Advantage

The first time Obamacare seemed finished, doomed, doornail-dead, the voters of Massachusetts played the would-be executioner. In January 2010, they sent a pickup-driving Republican to the Senate to fill Ted Kennedy's seat, apparently depriving the health care bill of its crucial 60th vote and sending Democrats scrambling for a Plan B. ... the deeper force at work, the reason that these near-death experiences keep happening, isn't a website or a broken presidential promise. It's a problem inherent to contemporary liberalism, which is that liberals' proudest achievement, the modern welfare state, tends to resist, corrupt and baffle their efforts at comprehensive reform (Ross Douthat, 11/16).

19 Nov 2013

Recent studies suggest that controlling dietary acid intake may help improve kidney health

Three new studies suggest that controlling dietary acid intake could help improve kidney health. Results of these studies will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2013 November 5-10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA.

11 Nov 2013

Study finds one in five people who visited health website enrolled in a plan

A Commonwealth Fund survey also finds that 17 percent of those eligible for a marketplace plan have reached out online, on the phone or in person to get information, PoliticoPro reports. Other outlets look at news about state marketplaces.

5 Nov 2013

US health care spending to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8% for 2012-22

New estimates released 9/18/13 from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services project that aggregate health care spending in the United States will grow at an average annual rate of 5.8 percent for 2012-22, or 1.0 percentage point faster than the expected growth in the gross domestic product.

11 Oct 2013

Out-of-pocket medical expenses to decline for most consumers under federal Affordable Care Act

Out-of-pocket medical expenses will decline for most consumers who become newly insured or change their source of health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

2 Oct 2013

Research roundup: 'Cadillac' plan taxes; 'chronic care management' for substance abusers; long-term care services

As health coverage expands to tens of millions of Americans--through Medicaid expansion in states and the new state health insurance exchanges that will soon begin selling individual health coverage--some Americans with employer-sponsored health coverage are seeing their benefits decrease.

21 Sep 2013

Wide variation among states in access to care, coverage for poor

There is wide variation in access to health care for the poor among the states, with the higher-performing states making it more likely that their poorer residents have health coverage and get preventive care, a new study finds.

19 Sep 2013

First Edition: September 18, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the Census Bureau's latest figures on the nation's uninsured as well as Congressional Budget Office long-term deficit projections and how that news fits into events in the ongoing Capitol Hill budget battles.

18 Sep 2013

The health law could add an extra pinch at tax time for some consumers

The Wall Street Journal reports that some people who receive government help to buy coverage could find they owe Uncle Sam money at tax time. Meanwhile, a new online poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos examines the question of whether young, unisured people will buy into the health law's new insurance offerings.

11 Sep 2013