{"id":5710,"date":"2020-09-11T16:43:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chirblog.org\/?p=5710"},"modified":"2020-09-11T16:58:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:58:03","slug":"august-research-roundup-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/august-research-roundup-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"August Research Roundup: What We’re Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"
The summer months are fleeting, but health policy research is here to stay. This month, the CHIR team read studies about the role of Affordable Care Act (ACA) in increasing access to health insurance coverage, the impact of consumer assistance programs on rates of enrollment, and challenges Americans have faced affording coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Pollitz, K, et al. Consumer Assistance in Health Insurance: Evidence of Impact and Unmet Need<\/a>. Kaiser Family Foundation, August 7, 2020. To assess the importance of in-person consumer assistance programs, researchers at The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) conducted a national survey of\u00a0consumers aged 18-64 who were most likely to use these services, including uninsured individuals, marketplace enrollees, and Medicaid beneficiaries.<\/p>\n What it Finds<\/i><\/p>\n Why it Matters<\/i><\/p>\n These findings illustrate that consumer assistance programs can be an important source of help to those who are uninsured and those seeking coverage. The ACA\u2019s Navigator Program has proved to be a particularly critical resource<\/a> for consumers undergoing coverage or eligibility changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the significant and demonstrated need for these entities, the Trump Administration has cut funding<\/a> for the ACA\u2019s Navigator program in federal marketplace states by 84 percent since 2017. This study exposes the results of that, as many consumers have missed opportunities to access coverage due to a lack of assistance available in their geographic area or spoken language. Given the ongoing pandemic and continuing<\/a> job and income insecurity, policymakers should find ways to help people who lost or are at risk of losing coverage, and consumer assistance programs have a proven track record.<\/p>\n Collins at al. U.S. Health Insurance Coverage in 2020: A Looming Crisis in Affordability<\/a>. The Commonwealth Fund, August 19, 2020. Researchers at the Commonwealth Fund examined health insurance for U.S. adults aged 19-64 in the latest Biennial Health Insurance survey, which evaluates the extent and quality of coverage for this population. The survey uses three measures to assess coverage adequacy: if people have insurance, whether the insured experienced a gap in coverage in the past year, and whether high out-of-pocket costs cause people to be underinsured.<\/p>\n What it Finds<\/i><\/p>\n Why it Matters<\/i><\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated gaps in insurance coverage. High premiums and cost sharing in private health plans along with a growing number of uninsured people will leave households facing exorbitant health care costs during a time of significant income insecurity. Consequently, more people will be exposed to medical debt, and they will also experience difficulties accessing essential medical care needed to test and treat for COVID-19 and reduce the spread of the virus. This is especially true for vulnerable and minority populations. It is essential for federal and state-level actors to get in front of these developments to preserve and expand access to life-saving care.<\/p>\n Agarwal, S. and Sommers, B. Insurance Coverage after Job Loss \u2014 The Importance of the ACA during the Covid-Associated Recession<\/a>. New England Journal of Medicine<\/i>, August 19, 2020.\u00a0In this study, researchers affiliated with Harvard University and Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital sought to demonstrate how the ACA has increased health coverage options for those experiencing job loss using national data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to compare the trajectories of non-elderly adults who lost their jobs before 2014 with the trajectories of those who lost their jobs between 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n What it Finds<\/i><\/p>\n Why it Matters<\/i><\/p>\n These findings indicate that the ACA has played an essential safety net role during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession. Minorities, especially Black and Hispanic people, have disproportionately suffered<\/a> job losses and increased rates of morbidity and mortality amid the pandemic. The ACA has helped to reduce racial disparities<\/a> in health insurance coverage in recent years, but the law could be overturned in a case<\/a> pending before the Supreme Court.\u00a0 In the current climate of widespread job loss that is exacerbating existing coverage inequity, the progress made under the ACA\u2019s reforms in protecting and expanding access to coverage is at stake, and while seeking to strike down the law, the Trump administration has yet to produce<\/a> a replacement plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The month of August went by in a flash, or painstakingly slowly, but either way it produced some great health policy research. CHIR’s Nia Gooding provides our monthly round up of health insurance-related studies and analyses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":4010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[377,532,53,446,156,730,533,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5710"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5716,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5710\/revisions\/5716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chirblog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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