Professional liability insurance coverage. Dayno v. Argonaut Insurance Companies--Pa. Super.--464 A.2d 501 (1983).
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
OBJECTIVE: To measure the change in U.S. women and children's health insurance coverage as a result of welfare reform (i.e. the creation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF) in 1996. DATA SOURCE: 1992-1999 longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) merged with data on the timing of state implementation of welfare reform after 1996. Two key advantages of the SIPP data are that they permit matching type of insurance coverage to the welfare policy environment in each state in each month, and permit controlling for individual-level fixed effects. STUDY DESIGN: We measure how much insurance coverage changed after welfare reform using a difference in differences method that eliminates the influence of time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity and of statewide trends in insurance coverage. Models also control for individual, state, and year fixed effects, individual-level characteristics such as education, age, and number of children, plus state-level variables such as real per capita income, real minimum wage, and Medicaid eligibility. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: We limit our analysis to the SIPP data specific to the month just completed prior to the interview; as a result, we have up to twelve observations for each individual in the SIPP. This paper uses pooled data from the 1992-1996 panels of the SIPP covering the period 1992-1999. Publicly available state identifiers permit the merger of state policies and macroeconomic variables with the SIPP. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: TANF implementation is associated with an 8.1 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible woman was uninsured. Welfare reform had less of an impact on the health insurance coverage of children. For example, TANF implementation was associated with a 3.0 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible child lacked health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: An unintended consequence of welfare reform was to adversely impact the health insurance coverage of economically vulnerable women and children, and that this impact was several times larger than the previous literature implies.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was designed to increase the number of children with health insurance coverage without resulting in large numbers of children substituting public coverage for private insurance. This study uses data from the Community Tracking Study collected before and after SCHIP implementation to examine the effects of increases in eligibility for public coverage on children's health insurance coverage. Using a regression-based difference-in-differences approach, the authors find that increases in eligibility for public coverage did increase the likelihood of having Medicaid or other state coverage versus being uninsured for the primary SCHIP target population--children in families with incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. However, eligibility increases also increased the likelihood of having public coverage versus private insurance for this income group, indicating that SCHIP expansions resulted in substitution of public for private insurance. In fact, simulation results indicate that the initial impact of SCHIP on private insurance coverage has been far greater than on uninsurance rates. These results reflect the early stages of SCHIP implementation, however, and are subject to change as the SCHIP programs mature.
OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how insurance coverage for mental health services affects outpatient mental health service utilization among those with and among those without a DSM-III psychiatric diagnosis. The authors used a representative community sample to compare the regression effects of insurance coverage on utilization of mental health services among these subjects. METHOD: Data are from the second wave of the Piedmont, North Carolina, site of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area project. These data contain DSM-III diagnostic measures derived from the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule as well as measures of insurance coverage and utilization. Responses from 2,889 community residents were analyzed using both ordinary least squares and logistic regression. RESULTS: In both models, insurance coverage was strongly associated with care among those with as well as among those without a psychiatric disorder. The association between coverage and the probability of care was strongest among those with a disorder. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are not consistent with the claim that failing to provide insurance coverage will reduce discretionary but not necessary mental health care utilization. They provide evidence that failing to provide insurance coverage will reduce utilization as much or more among those with a psychiatric disorder as among those without. This result has important implications for health care reform.
PURPOSE: To determine the accuracy of adolescents' self-report of health insurance coverage, using parents' report as a comparison standard. METHODS: Two separate samples of urban, school-based adolescents and their parents completed self-administered questionnaires about type of health insurance coverage. Sample 1 included 123 and Sample 2 included 93 adolescent-parent pairs. Percent agreement and the kappa statistic were determined for each of the sample groups, and for males versus females and older (> 14 years) versus younger (< or = 14 years) adolescents. RESULTS: In Sample 1, 33% of adolescent respondents responded "don't know" to the question about type of insurance coverage, and 4% left the question blank; in Sample 2, 3% answered "don't know," with none leaving the question blank. For Sample 1, we found a 57% rate of agreement of adolescents with their parents, and a corresponding kappa of .21. Females and older subjects demonstrated greater accuracy, with kappa's all in the range .13-.29. In Sample 2, 73% of subjects agreed with parents' report, with a kappa of .48. Females and older subjects also demonstrated greater accuracy, with the highest kappa of .59 demonstrated by older females. Excluding those responding with "don't know," we found overall percent agreement with parents of 87% in Sample 1 and 73% in Sample 2; the corresponding kappas were .47 and .51. Females demonstrated higher agreement with parents in both samples. The results stratifying by age were inconsistent. In Sample 1, privately insured subjects were more accurate reporters than those either on medical assistance or uninsured. In Sample 2, no differences were seen by type of insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Many adolescents do not know their health insurance coverage status. However, for those who did claim to know, acceptable rates of accuracy using both percent agreement and the kappa statistic were demonstrated. Further research is needed to determine how information about insurance is communicated to adolescents and how this knowledge affects access to and use of health services.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
BACKGROUND: Insurance coverage can reduce financial barriers that constitute a significant deterrent to obtaining medical and dental care, especially for children who reside in low-income households. We present baseline information on the codistribution of medical and dental coverage among US children according to sociodemographic characteristics before the enactment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). METHODS: Data for 27,059 children 0-17 years old from the 1995 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were analyzed to examine the distribution of medical and dental insurance coverage by sociodemographic characteristics. Prevalence estimates and adjusted odds ratios with 95 percent confidence intervals were calculated using SUDAAN. RESULTS: Overall, 14.1 percent children were uninsured for medical care and 36.4 were uninsured for dental care; thus, there were 2.6 times as many children uninsured for dental than for medical care. Near-poor and Hispanic children were most likely to be without medical or dental coverage. Near-poor children were more likely to be uninsured for dental care than for medical care (43.8% vs 22.5%). CONCLUSION: Our findings, coupled with previous reports, suggest that the most serious problem concerning lack of dental insurance is among near-poor children. SCHIP has the potential to address dental coverage among near-poor children.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the role of insurance coverage in protecting families of children with special health care needs (CSHCN) from the financial burden associated with care. METHODS: Data from the 2001 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs were analyzed. We built 2 multivariate regression models by using "work loss/cut back" and "experiencing financial problems" as the dependent variables, and insurance status as the primary independent variable of interest while adjusting for income, race/ethnicity, functional limitation/severity, and other sociodemographic predictors. RESULTS: Approximately 29.9% of CSHCN live in families where their condition led parents to report cutting back on work or stopping work completely. Families of 20.9% of CSHCN reported experiencing financial difficulties due to the child's condition. Insurance coverage significantly reduced the likelihood of financial problems for families at every income level. The proportion of families experiencing financial problems was reduced from 35.7% to 23.0% for the poor and 44.9% to 24.5% for low-income families with continuous insurance coverage (P < .01 for both comparisons). Similarly, the proportion of parents having to cut back or stop work was reduced from 42.8% to 35.9% for the poor (P < .05) and 43.5% to 33.9% for low-income families (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Continuous health insurance coverage provides protection from financial burden and hardship for families of CSHCN in all income groups. This evidence is supportive of policies designed to promote universal coverage for CSHCN. However, many poor and low-income families continue to experience work loss and financial problems despite insurance coverage. Hence, health insurance should not be viewed as a solution in itself, but instead as one element of a comprehensive strategy to provide financial safety for families with CSHCN.
This paper presents the first national estimates of the effects of the SCHIP expansions on insurance coverage. Using CPS data on insurance coverage during the years 1996-2000, we estimate instrumental variables regressions of insurance coverage. Our regression results imply that 9% of children meeting income eligibility standards for SCHIP gained public insurance. While low, our estimates indicate that states were more successful in enrolling children in SCHIP than they were with prior Medicaid expansions that were focused on children just above the poverty line. Crowd-out of private health insurance was estimated to be nearly 50%, which is in line with estimates for the Medicaid expansions of the early 1990s. In addition, state anti-crowd-out provisions in the form of waiting periods were found to significantly affect both take-up and crowd-out.
OBJECTIVES: This article examines socioeconomic differences in supplementary insurance for prescription drugs among Canadians aged 15 or older and how the availability of such insurance affects prescription drug use. DATA SOURCE: The data on prescription drug insurance coverage and drug use are from the cross-sectional Health file of the 1996/97 National Population Health Survey (NPHS) conducted by Statistics Canada. The sample size of the population aged 15 or older was 70,884. ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES: Rates of insurance coverage for prescription drug services were calculated. All summary estimates were age-adjusted using the 1996/97 population of Canada (both sexes). MAIN RESULTS: Among people aged 15 or older, 61% were covered for prescription medications in 1996/97. Sixty-five percent of workers reported coverage, while those who were not working were less likely to have benefits (52%). Only 38% of lower income groups had insurance compared with 74% of the highest income group. Regardless of the number of chronic diseases individuals had, those with drug insurance were more likely to report taking medication.
We study whether welfare reform adversely affected the health insurance coverage of low-educated single mothers and their children. Specifically, we investigate whether changes in the welfare caseload during the 1990s were associated with changes in Medicaid participation, private insurance coverage, and the number of uninsured among single mothers and their children. Estimates suggest that between 1996 and 1999, the 42% decrease in the welfare caseload was associated with the following changes in insurance coverage among low-educated, single mothers: a 7-9% decrease in Medicaid coverage; an increase in employer-sponsored, private insurance coverage of 6%; and a 2-9% increase in the proportion uninsured. Among children of low-educated, single mothers, effects were somewhat smaller. Since welfare policy was responsible for only part (e.g. one-third) of the decline in the caseload, welfare reform per se had significantly smaller effects on the health insurance status of low-income families. However, we found limited evidence that changes in the caseload due to state and federal welfare policy had fewer adverse consequences on insurance status than changes in the caseload due to other factors. This implies even smaller effects of welfare reform.
OBJECTIVES: To summarize key findings on disparities in health insurance coverage for latino children, to present selected socioeconomic and healthcare access indicators for the nine states with latino populations over 500,000, and to recommend state strategies to increase public health insurance coverage for latino children. METHODS: Literature review performed on latino children and health insurance coverage, key informant interviews with frontline service providers, review of outreach sections of eight state 1115 waiver requests approved by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and national and state data compiled on sociodemographic and healthcare access indicators for nine states with the largest latino populations. RESULTS: Eligibility and enrollment into Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) are hindered by financial, nonfinancial, and social policy barriers. Disparities in insurance and access indicators show that lack of parental employment-linked benefits, procedural barriers to enrollment, and lack of clarification on eligibility for children of noncitizen parents are associated with low levels of insurance coverage among latino children. CONCLUSION: To state strategies consistent with the overarching goal of Healthy People 2010 to eliminate health disparities can increase health insurance coverage for children of low-wage latino workers.
To examine the relationship between insurance coverage and the diagnostic content of residents' experience in a hospital-based pediatric teaching clinic, we analyzed outpatient problem lists for 6543 patients seen in our clinic over a 15-month period. Problem-list contents were categorized using diagnostic clusters. The frequency distribution of clustered problems was compared for patients with four types of insurance coverage: indemnity insurance, health maintenance organization, Medicaid, and no insurance. The four insurance categories differed in the overall distribution of problems, but the differences could not be attributed to a disparity in the frequency of any single diagnosis or diagnostic cluster. We conclude that there was no important effect of insurance coverage on the diagnostic content of residents' experience in a teaching clinic.
This paper investigates the relationship between the macroeconomy and health insurance coverage for non-elderly Americans. We find that, for men, state unemployment rate is positively correlated with the probability of health insurance coverage in general and through an employer in particular, and that these correlations are only partly explained by changes in employment status. In contrast, the insurance coverage of women and children appears to be insulated from fluctuations in the unemployment rate by public health insurance programs like Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We estimate that 984,000 Americans, nearly all of whom were adult men, lost health insurance due to macroeconomic conditions alone during the 2001 recession.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the importance of continuous health insurance for access to care by comparing the access and cost experiences of insured adults with a recent time uninsured to the experiences of currently uninsured adults and experiences of adults with no time uninsured within a reference time period (continuously insured). DATA SOURCES: Adults ages 18-64. Data draw from three different survey databases: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 1996-1997 Community Tracking Survey, the Kaiser/Commonwealth 1997 National Survey of Health Insurance, and the 1995-1997 Kaiser/Commonwealth State Low Income Surveys. STUDY DESIGN: The study groups individuals into three insurance categories based on respondents' reports of insurance coverage within a reference time period: continuously insured; insured when surveyed but with recent time uninsured; and currently uninsured. In the two Kaiser/Commonwealth surveys the recently uninsured group included any insured respondent with a time uninsured in the past two years. In the Community Tracking Survey, the recently uninsured group included any insured respondent with a time uninsured in the past year. Measures of access include foregoing health care when needed, usual source of care, use of health care services, difficulties paying for medical care, and satisfaction with care. DATA COLLECTION: All three surveys were conducted primarily by telephone. The Community Tracking Survey drew from 60 community sites, with an additional random national sample. The Kaiser/Commonwealth National Survey was a random national sample; the Kaiser/Commonwealth State Low Income Surveys included adults ages 18-64 with incomes at or below 250 percent of poverty in seven states: Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, New York, and California. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Compared to the continuously insured, those insured but with a recent time uninsured were at high risk of going without needed care and of having problems paying medical bills. This group was two to three times as likely as those with continuous coverage to report access problems. Rates of access and cost problems reported by insured adults with a recent time uninsured neared levels reported by those who were uninsured at the time of the survey. These two groups also rated care received more negatively than did adults with continuous insurance coverage. In general, the access gap between persons insured and uninsured widened as a result of distinguishing insured adults with a recent time uninsured from insured adults with no time uninsured. CONCLUSION: Studies that focus on current insurance status alone will underestimate the extent to which having a time uninsured during the year contributes to access difficulties and undermines quality of care, and will underestimate the proportion of the population at risk because they are uninsured. Policy reforms are needed to maintain continuous insurance coverage and avoid spells uninsured. Currently uninsured and unstably insured adults are both at high risk.
This analysis compares the March 1994 and March 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS) counts of the numbers of people with different types of health insurance and without any health insurance coverage. The findings contain some surprises: there were no changes in the numbers of nonelderly people with Medicaid coverage and without any health insurance, and there were increases in the numbers of nonelderly people with employer-sponsored health insurance and with CHAMPUS/VA/military health care. Four changes were introduced in the CPS in 1995 and were likely, by themselves, to both raise and lower the estimates of the numbers of people with specific types of health insurance coverage. Three of the changes relate to questions about health insurance coverage; they coincide with the traditional mid-decade shift in the sample framework for the CPS.
BACKGROUND: Breast carcinoma remains a significant health problem in the U.S., especially among underserved populations. Although screening mammography is recommended for early detection, in 2002, approximately 25% of women age > 40 years had not had a mammogram within the past 2 years. The current study examined perceptions of insurance coverage and cost as barriers to screening mammography within an underserved, predominantly low-income population of women in need of a mammogram. METHODS: Between 1998 and 2002, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 897 women age > or = 40 years. All women were part of a randomized, controlled study evaluating a health education intervention designed to improve mammography screening. They were asked questions at baseline about cost and insurance coverage as barriers to mammography screening. Women's reports of their level of insurance coverage for mammography were compared with actual coverage by their insurance type to determine the accuracy of their perception of insurance coverage for mammography. The relation between perception of insurance coverage and the barrier of cost was investigated. RESULTS: Greater than half of the women who needed a mammogram identified cost as a barrier to mammography; however, 40% of these women had an inappropriate perception of their insurance coverage. Underestimating or not knowing the level of mammography coverage was strongly associated with reporting cost-related difficulty (odds ratio [OR] = 4.57, 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.95-10.70 for the underestimate category; OR = 4.42, 95% CI, 1.80-10.88 for the don't know category), regardless of true coverage levels. CONCLUSIONS: Providing women with information regarding their actual coverage for mammograms may reduce the impact of cost as a barrier to screening mammography.
We estimated state-specific changes in health insurance coverage rates for children between 1996-1998 and 2001-2002. We found considerable variation in the changing distribution of health insurance coverage for children across states, with significant increases in public program coverage in twenty-nine states and significant decreases in uninsured children in twenty-seven. Children in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level were the most likely to enroll in public programs. We provide an overview of state outreach and administrative simplification efforts and raise concerns about the persistent variation in children's health insurance coverage across states.