Tag: racial health disparities

State Health Equity Initiatives Confront Decades of Racism in the Insurance Industry

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As another Marketplace Open Enrollment Period begins, millions of Americans will turn to insurance brokers to guide them to affordable and comprehensive health insurance. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Jalisa Clark and Christine Monahan look into the underrepresentation of people of color in the broker profession and the clients they serve, including the historical origins of these racial disparities and how the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces are intervening.

An Historic Event: A Summary of CMS’s Inaugural Health Equity Conference

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Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) held the first ever CMS Health Equity Conference. CHIR members who attended the inaugural conference provide an overview of the meeting—including a presentation by CHIR’s Christine Monahan—and its implications for current and future health equity initiatives.

March Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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Winter is finally over, and health policy research is in full bloom. In March, we read about disparities in health insurance coverage for people of color, medical debt, and preventive service usage among private health plan enrollees.

Using Health Insurance Reform to Reduce Disparities in Diabetes Care

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The affordability of diabetes care is a national issue. Even with insurance, diabetic patients can spend thousands of dollars on medication, supplies, and health services. These costs can present a particular burden on Black families. Black and Hispanic patients face disproportionally high hospitalizations and emergency department visits due to diabetes complications, emphasizing that affordable access to diabetes care is an issue of health equity. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR experts highlight different approaches states are taking to reduce health care disparities for diabetic patients.

Improving Race and Ethnicity Data Collection: A First Step to Furthering Health Equity Through the State-Based Marketplaces

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The ACA’s marketplaces are working to advance health equity. State-based marketplaces are uniquely situated to improve health equity if they can close current gaps in race and ethnicity data. In a new post for the Commonwealth Fund, CHIR’s Dania Palanker, Jalisa Clark, and Christine Monahan examine the landscape of marketplace race and ethnicity data, and detail strategies for the upcoming open enrollment period to improve data collection.

February Research Roundup: What We’re Reading

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In honor of Black History Month, for the February edition of CHIR’s monthly research roundup we reviewed new health policy research centering the experiences of Black people in the U.S. health care system, including structural racism in health care policy, the impact of state Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation on racial and ethnic minority populations, and trends in coverage, care access, and health outcomes among Black Americans.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.