Discover the Science of Health
Open enrollment in the new Health Insurance Marketplace — a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) — began today, allowing individuals and families to purchase private insurance for coverage beginning January 1, 2014. A new Kaiser Family Foundation study provides an early look at insurance premiums in 2014 [1]. The report finds that U.S. consumers generally will see lower health insurance premiums through the marketplace.
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in to law in March 2010 after a year of intense national debate. On Thursday last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld law, ruling that the individual mandate, which requires U.S. citizens and legal residents to have qualifying health coverage or pay a penalty, is constitutional as a tax. The ruling will have a far-reaching impact on healthcare providers, especially for those who work with underserved populations.
Welcome to Grand Rounds: the Impact of Healthcare Reform.
For this edition of Grand Rounds, Vol. 7 No. 11, we’re focusing on the impact of healthcare reform: what are the changes to healthcare delivery, utilization, quality, costs (either as a provider or a patient) and outcomes. After all, these changes affect everyone, whether you’re a patient, a healthcare provider or a biomedical researcher.
The St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) Charitable Pharmacy in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced last week that it surpassed $5.1 million dollars worth of medication dispensed to help people in need since it opened in September 2006 [1]. The Charitable Pharmacy is the only pharmacy in southwest Ohio that provides free, professional pharmaceutical care to people in need.
In May, we wrote about the Spectrum Health Value Study, an ongoing national online survey where Americans are asked what they value when it comes to healthcare products and services. The survey evaluates 27 programs, products and services categories used by the U.S. government for measuring economic activity in various sectors of the economy. Every three months, Spectrum, a public relations and public affairs firm based in Washington DC, interviews 1,000 people and asks them to identify from the 27 healthcare products, programs and services those ever used and how satisfied they were with each. The ongoing study can be used to identify the relative value Americans place in healthcare programs, products and services, and how the value changes over time.
The most recent Spectrum Health Value Study data was used to compare answers from insured and uninsured respondents. As Congress recesses for the month of August to talk with their constituents about the current healthcare legislation under consideration in the U.S. House and Senate, these data offer a glimpse into what insured and uninsured Americans value in healthcare.
