Widening economic inequality in the USA has been accompanied by increasing disparities in health outcomes. The life expectancy of the wealthiest Americans now exceeds that of the poorest by 10-15 years. This report, part of a Series on health and inequality in the USA, focuses on how the health-care system, which could reduce income-based disparities in health, instead often exacerbates them. O...

In the previous issue, we reviewed the ways in which the Affordable Care Act (ACA) promotes the continued development of electronic health records (EHRs) to improve the quality of health care. In this companion article, we’ll focus on the cost-saving arguments behind the development of a digital health care system by contrasting the utopian vision of the mid1990s with its real-world implementat...

Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) represent populations with chronic health conditions that are often high utilizers of health care. Limited health literacy has emerged as a key indicator of adverse health outcomes, and CSHCN from limited health literacy families are particularly vulnerable. The purpose of this policy analysis is to outline key provisions in the Affordable Care Ac...

Introduction Neurologists are a small (*3%) highly subspecialized segment of the US physician workforce providing added value to care of patients with routine and complex neurological conditions. Over time, we have grown from providing mainly cognitive and electrophysiology diagnostic services to providing patients with sophisticated diagnostic, management, and preventive options. We are faced ...

Starting in 2014, states received the option to expand Medicaid through Affordable Care Act (ACA). Many chose whereas others opted out. In this protocol, we describe a study examine impact of expansion on mortality continental United States from 2015-2018. We adopt matching structure Mann et al. (2021) estimate causal effects study. This protocol outlines both standard method analyzing policy c...

In 2010, immediately before the United States of America (USA) implemented key features of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 18% of its residents younger than 65 years lacked health insurance. In the USA, gaps in health coverage and unhealthy lifestyles contribute to outcomes that often compare unfavourably with those observed in other high-income countries. By March 2014, the ACA had substantiall...

The Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act (PPACA) brought many changes to the delivery of the U.S. Health Care System since its inauguration on March 23rd, 2010 (Medicare & Services, 2013a). A change within the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is Title III, part III, Section 3025 policy, adopted in 2012. This policy implemented the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) requiring the C...

In recent years, there has been a growing momentum to establish healthier environments within communities. For example, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 led to the initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work, which provided funding for addressing health inequities (IOM, 2012). One year later, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 was passed with t...

S AFETY-NET HOSPITALS (SNHS) PROVIDE A DISproportionate share of care to uninsured and Medicaid patients. Because they have few privately insured patients, SNHs cannot cover the costs of uncompensated care for the uninsured by charging higher fees to insured patients. As a result of the heavy burden of uncompensated care for the uninsured and inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates, most SNHs h...