Abstract: We study the impact of the introduction of one of the major pillars of the social insurance system in the United States: the introduction of Medicare in 1965. Our results suggest that, in its first 10 years, the establishment of universal health insurance for the elderly had no discernible impact on elderly mortality. However, we find a substantial reduction in the elderly’s exposure ...

OBJECTIVES To measure expatriates' knowledge of health insurance benefits with respect to outpatient, inpatient, prescription drug, and dental services, and to link this knowledge to sociodemographic and employment characteristic.  Methods: Cross-sectional, face-to-face interviews were conducted from March 2015 to February 2016 with a stratified random sample of 3,398 male insured expatriate wo...

This paper describes how much families know about their health insurance coverage and investigates whether consumer education and simplified benefit structures would improve knowledge. Families' perceptions about their insurance benefits were measured in two household surveys administered in six sites. Knowledge was assessed by comparing families' responses with policy data collected from the c...

BACKGROUND We conducted a pilot test of American Cancer Society Workplace Solutions, an intervention that takes a marketing approach to increasing employers' adoption of evidence-based practices to prevent and control chronic diseases among their employees. CONTEXT We delivered the intervention and assessed the changes in practices of 8 large employers in the Pacific Northwest. METHODS Work...

The Affordable Care Act broadens and strengthens the health insurance benefits available to consumers by requiring insurers to provide coverage of a minimum set of medical services known as "essential health benefits." Federal officials implemented this reform using transitional policies that left many important decisions to the states, while pledging to reassess that approach in time for the 2...

The cost of expanding health insurance coverage increases when people who would otherwise purchase insurance obtain public coverage. This paper investigates the effects of one of the first efforts to target insurance benefits to the most needy, the 1982 medicare as secondary payer (MSP) provisions. We find strong evidence of low compliance with the MSP both in terms of medical bill payments (pa...

Although disabled beneficiaries are not expected to work, do they continue to value work? This article compares data on a particular concept of work values, the importance to the self of having a job, for social security disability insurance beneficiaries, other disabled persons, and nondisabled persons interviewed in the Social Security Administration's 1978 Survey of Disability and Work. Desc...

Medicinal mushrooms have been used for centuries as nutraceuticals to improve health and to treat numerous chronic and infectious diseases. One such mushroom is Ganoderma lucidum, commonly known as Lingzhi, a species revered as a medicinal mushroom for treating assorted diseases and prolonging life. The fungus is found in diverse locations, and this may have contributed to confusion regarding t...

U NDER the Social Security Act, once an individual establishes his entitlement to monthly oldage and survivors insurance benefits, he continues to receive his benefit each and every month, unless any one of several specified events occurs -principally, his substantial employment or self-employment, death, attainment of age 18, marriage, or remarriage. Under conditions stated in the Act, these e...

In establishing minimum coverage standards for health insurance plans, the Affordable Care Act includes an "essential health benefits" statute that directs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services not to make coverage decisions, determine reimbursement rates, establish incentive programs, or design benefits in ways that discriminate against individuals because of their age, disability, o...