Friday, December 20, 2002

Expanded Public Health Insurance Fuels Drop in Low-Income, Uninsured Children
News release from the Center for Studying Health System Change - "Expanded public health insurance eligibility, along with aggressive outreach to enroll eligible children, helped decrease the proportion of low-income, uninsured children in America from 20.1 percent in 1997 to 16.1 percent in 2001, according to a national study released today..." See also the full issue brief. The Center also this week had a press release on a new research report on The Effects of SCHIP on Children's Health Insurance Coverage.  
  

Reform and the Mentally Ill (Virginia)
Washington Post editorial on recently announced plans by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner regarding deinstitutionalization and a greater emphasis on community care. The editorial notes that "..... Virginia these days is far from an ideal world. The state was spending far below the national average on mental health care even before the severe budget cuts imposed as a result of the current fiscal crisis. Beds are scarce, and people who badly need care are being turned away. This is precisely the situation in which undertaking deinstitutionalization is most dangerous. For releasing seriously ill people into the community does nobody any good -- least of all the patients themselves -- if appropriate services do not in fact become available."