KEY FINDINGS Data from the National Health Interview Survey: 2008. Almost 13 million young adults aged 20-29 years did not have health insurance coverage in 2008 (30%). Young men aged 20-29 years were 36% more likely than young women of that age to be uninsured. Young adults aged 20-29 years without insurance were less likely to have a usual source of medical care (44%) than were those with pri...

Non-Hispanic whites are significantly more likely to have health insurance coverage than most racial/ethnic minorities, and this differential grew during the 1990s. Similarly, wealthier Americans are more likely to have health insurance than the poor, and this difference also grew over the 1990s. This paper examines the role of provider competition in increasing these disparities in insurance c...

BACKGROUND Patients receive care in safety net clinics regardless of insurance status; however, receipt of diabetes preventive care might vary among patients with differing levels of insurance continuity. METHODS In a retrospective cohort study, using electronic health record data from adults with diabetes who were receiving care in 50 safety net clinics in Oregon in 2005 to 2007, we conducte...

This paper investigates the impact of the macroeconomy on the health insurance coverage of Americans using panel data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation for 2004-2010, a period that includes the Great Recession of 2007-2009. We find that a one percentage point increase in the state unemployment rate is associated with a 1.67 percentage point (2.12%) reduction in the probability...

CONTEXT Cost-sharing in US prescription drug coverage plans for elderly persons varies widely. Evaluation of prescription drug use among elderly persons by type of health insurance could provide useful information for designing a Medicare drug program. OBJECTIVE To determine use of effective cardiovascular drugs among elderly persons with coronary heart disease (CHD) by type of health insuran...

OBJECTIVE Health insurance options are changing. Electronic health record (EHR) databases present new opportunities for providers to track the insurance coverage status of their patients. This study demonstrates the use of EHR data for this purpose. METHODS Using EHR data from the OCHIN Network of community health centers, we conducted a retrospective cohort study of data from children presen...

INTRODUCTION Migrants are a vulnerable population and could experience various challenges and barriers to accessing health insurance. Health insurance coverage protects migrants from financial loss related to illness and death. We assessed social health insurance (SHI) coverage and its financial protection effect among rural-to-urban internal migrants (IMs) in China. METHODS Data from the '20...

As policymakers consider whether and how to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare, they need to understand the relationship between insurance coverage and the adoption of new medical technologies, including drugs. Even the direction of these relationships is not always so clear. In this Issue Brief, Drs. Danzon and Pauly examine the shift from inpatient to outpatient care in the last 20 ye...

We examined trends in health insurance coverage among 36,999 HIV-infected adults in care at 11 US HIV clinics between 2006 and 2012. Aggregate health insurance coverage was stable during this time. The proportions of patient-years with private, Medicaid, Medicare, and no insurance during this period were 15.9%, 35.7%, 20.1%, and 28.4%, respectively. Medicaid coverage was more prevalent among wo...