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PubMed2001

Transitional subsidies for health insurance coverage.

Losing or leaving a job often means losing health insurance. Of all those who have lost private insurance and become uninsured, one-third have either left or lost a job in the recent past. Continuation of coverage subsidies under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985 mitigate only slightly this problem due to the high costs of the group coverage that must be purchased. This paper discusses a proposal to build on the successes of COBRA to extend insurance to this important population. The key components are: a doubling of the length of COBRA entitlement to 36 months; eligibility for workers in all firms, not just those with more than 20 employees, but with a waiting period of one to two years; the establishment of a new COBRA-LOAN program that would offer government loans to help enrollees pay the cost of COBRA while they searched for new opportunities; and forgiveness of repayments after the entitlement period for those with low incomes.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Private health insurance coverage for substance abuse and mental health services, 1995 to 1998.

Four years of data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse were combined to examine the characteristics of underinsurance in a sample of privately insured Americans aged 18 to 64. Among these adults, 38 percent (45 million) reported not having behavioral health coverage or not knowing their coverage. Young adults aged 18 to 25, Hispanics, Asians, adults in the lowest income level, and less educated adults were more likely to be underinsured. Untreated addictive and psychiatric problems are costly to society. Underinsurance among socially disadvantaged subgroups deserves greater attention from researchers and policy makers.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Using pharmacoeconomic analysis to make drug insurance coverage decisions.

Our objective was to institute a cost-effectiveness-based reimbursement eligibility and coverage scheme for drugs in the Canadian province of British Columbia. All applications from drug manufacturers requesting Pharmacare (British Columbia government-funded drug insurance plan) coverage were evaluated by the Pharmacoeconomic Initiative (PI) of British Columbia. PI recommendations are according to a majority decision reached by a multidisciplinary volunteer expert committee and are based on a critical evaluation of pharmacoeconomic studies submitted by manufacturers seeking reimbursement eligibility. Coverage for drugs is universal and completely free for the financially indigent. Others are charged a small copayment and/or a deductible. PI assessments are evidence-based. Published guidelines from the Canadian Coordinating Office of Health Technology Assessment (CCOHTA) and/or Ontario Ministry of Health guidelines for the economic evaluation of pharmaceuticals are recommended for preparing submissions to the PI. Between January 1996 and December 1996, the PI made recommendations on 21 submissions; 4 of these were cost-effectiveness or cost-utility analyses; 3 were cost-minimisation analyses; 6 were cost comparisons or cost-consequence analyses; and 8 were provincial formulary budget impact studies. Of the 21 PI recommendations, 18 were accepted by Pharmacare and decisions are pending for 2 others, thus providing a concordance rate of 95% (18/19; kappa = 0.89). A total of 7 of the 21 products were recommended for formulary inclusion by the PI; 4 were as per drug company requests (i.e. full-benefit status) and 3 were recommended under restricted use. Only 5 of 21 submissions, of which 4 had favourable reviews, complied with either the CCOHTA or the Ontario Ministry of Health guidelines. Most studies were conducted, not from a societal perspective, but from the perspective of the provincial healthcare system. Most of the analysis were short term and therefore discounting was not applied. Sensitivity analysis was not performed in more than half (52%) of the submissions, and 48% of applications used inappropriate comparators. Ontario is the only other Canadian province with a similar process, with cost-effectiveness criteria for reimbursement eligibility. However, analysis in that province during the same approximate time period demonstrated a low concordance between Ontario Drug Benefit and PI decisions (kappa = 0.07). Currently, the mandated or suggested use of technology assessments of pharmaceuticals with cost effectiveness as the primary end-point is a reality in several countries worldwide. Our results, based on actual experience from implementing such a programme, suggest that while industry is slow to adapt to the new reporting requirements it may also be sceptical about the importance of cost effectiveness and guideline compliance in decision-making.

British Columbia↗
PubMed1997

Drive-through deliveries: in support of federal legislation to mandate insurer coverage of medically sound minimum lengths of postpartum stay for mothers and newborns.

President Clinton signed the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996 into law on September 26, 1996. The Act requires insurers that provide maternity benefits to cover medically sound minimum lengths of inpatient, postpartum stays according to the joint guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. This Note discusses the historical context in which the necessity for passage of protective legislation arose, the interplay between state and federal statutes that created the need for federal legislation to provide desired protections for postpartum patients, and examines the provisions of the Act. This Note endorses the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 1996 as federal legislation necessary to protect postpartum patients from medically inappropriate insurer mandates while still allowing medical providers and their patients flexibility in medical decision making in the postpartum period.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The cost of rationing medical care by insurance coverage and by waiting.

This paper raises the question of the least-cost institutional mechanism to secure the value of certainty by reducing risk over the purchase of medical care. Two methods of reducing risk are evaluated: financing medical care with 'complete insurance', that is, ready access to medical care that is free at the point of purchase; and rationing by waiting time in a national health service that supplies a limited volume of medical care. The first system corresponds to the type of insurance held by most people in the United States, while the latter represents a stylized model of a national health service. The cost of over-utilization of services by insured consumers in the U.S. is substantial--larger on a per-family basis, and far larger for the nation, than the cost of under-utilization by those who lack insurance. The cost of rationing by waiting is estimated to be between $541 and $828 per family (in 1984 dollars). Thus, both systems involve costly mis-allocation of resources.

Actuarial Analysis↗