Access to health care refers to the ease with which an individual can obtain needed medical services. RAND research has examined the social, cultural, economic, and geographic factors that influence health care access worldwide; the effects of changes in access; and the relationship between access and health for specific U.S. populations—including racial and ethnic minorities, people with limited English proficiency, the uninsured, the elderly, children, and veterans.
If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually—about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.
The authors compare the experiences of elderly Medicare beneficiaries in Puerto Rico with their English-preferring and Spanish-preferring Medicare counterparts in the U.S. mainland.
This article tests the hypotheses that reported asthma prevalence is higher among insured than uninsured children and that insurance-based differences in asthma diagnosis, treatment, and health care utilization are associated with disease severity.
This article examines the relationship of wealth and income and the relative impact of each on dental utilization in a population of older Americans, using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
The CHIP expansions to children in higher income families were associated with limited uptake of public coverage.
Use of retail medical clinics located in pharmacies and other retail settings increased tenfold between 2007 and 2009. The determining factors in choosing one over a physician's office were found to be age, health status, income, and proximity to the clinic.
Approaching disparities through a public health framework can provide the foundation for developing more robust evidence to inform additional policies for improving access and reducing disparities.
Affordability benchmarks and premium-contribution requirements for Children's Health Insurance Program expansions in three states vary substantially, underscoring the ambiguity and subjectivity of affordability standards.
Access to care and care quality for those with insurance are poorer in communities in which many individuals are uninsured.
If the Affordable Care Act is to successfully expand health care coverage and access for those who most need it, states must implement strategies to ensure that those eligible for coverage are appropriately and efficiently enrolled.
Given the current realities of African health systems, governments will need to rely more heavily on the private health sector. This report assesses and compares the ways in which African governments are engaging with their private health sectors.
This study found that the number of emergency departments operating in the US from 1990 to 2009 declined by 27%. EDs with safety-net status, for-profit ownership, and low profit margin were at higher risk of closure.
California's prisons, which are operating under receivership for medical care, need help in improving the quality of health care they provide.
More educated, affluent patients were no more likely to be offered a choice than other population groups, but there does appear to be a social gradient in who chose to travel beyond the local area for treatment. If these results were replicated across England, there is at least the potential risk that when local hospitals are failing, patient choice could result in inequitable access to high quality care, rather than enhancing equity as…
A faith-based health research network could create a framework for evaluating such efforts.
This research brief summaries results of a longitudinal study of military families, which found that spouses and children faced major challenges when one parent was deployed overseas.
This article describes findings from a group of experts assembled to help improve the science of patient safety..
Mexican American injection drug users reported fewer sex-related risks than Whites and African Americans. Mexican Americans were more likely to participate in drug treatment during a 6 month period, but less likely to receive any health care.
Children admitted to the hospital seem more likely to have a prolonged stay in the emergency department if they are Hispanic, come to the ED in the winter, and arrive early in the morning.
The quickest way to assess the strength of a community's hospital systems is to spend a few hours in the emergency department.
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