Wednesday, January 28, 2004

"Why Is HHS Obscuring a Health Care Gap?"
Commentary column in the Washington Post by H. Jack Geiger, professor emeritus of community medicine at the City University of New York Medical School and a past president of Physicians for Human Rights - "Over the past four years my colleagues and I have read and reviewed more than a thousand careful, peer-reviewed studies documenting systematic deficiencies and inequities in the health care provided for African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and members of some Asian subgroups. The evidence is overwhelming. Unfortunately, the Department of Health and Human Services seems intent on papering it over..." See also Democrats: HHS spins health report, posted here January 14.  
  

Changes In Health Insurance Coverage During The Economic Downturn: 2000–2002
Article in Health Affairs - "Using Current Population Survey data from 2000–2002, this paper documents the changes that led the uninsured population to grow by 3.8 million during that time period. All of the increase in the uninsured occurred among adults, and two-thirds was among low-income adults. The extent to which the loss of employer coverage resulted in people becoming uninsured depended on their access to public programs: Children were more likely than adults to gain public coverage; women more likely than men; and parents more likely than nonparents. Middle- and higher-income Americans were also affected because many lost income and because rates of employer coverage were lower."