Thursday, September 25, 2003
Who Enrolls In A Program For Parents Of Publicly Insured Children?
Health Affairs article - "Although interest in expanding SCHIP coverage to parents has grown over the past five years, few such expansions have actually been implemented. State governments and health plan administrators remain concerned that these expansions will attract only high-risk enrollees, resulting in costly premiums that require large subsidies. We examine characteristics of enrollees in an SCHIP-like expansion program in Alameda County, California. According to our survey data, the program did not experience unfavorable selection. Rather, it attracted a broad range of eligible adults. Enrollees were comparable to the overall low-income population in Alameda County in terms of age, health status, and various utilization measures." The article is also available in
Adobe Acrobat format.
Supported housing for the homeless is more efffective, but also more costly Yale University press release - "The combination of subsidized housing and intensive case management for homeless people with mental illness keeps many more people off the street, but at an additional cost of $45 per day housed, or approximately $2,000 a year, according to a Yale study. The study comes at a time of national policy discussions about provision of permanent subsidized housing for the homeless. In fact, President George W. Bush set a goal of ending chronic homelessness in 10 years. Advocates of this approach proposed that decreased expenditure of shelter resources, health care and criminal justice services would offset the additional cost of the program. The Yale study published this month in the
Archives of General Psychiatry is the first to examine this hypothesis and suggests that costs may increase, although modestly."
Minority Adolescents Receive Fewer Health Services Brief
Ivanhoe Newswire item - "Minority adolescents are less likely than white adolescents to receive necessary health care services -- despite their family income level. According to researchers who reviewed 31 studies on primary health care, mental health care, reproductive health, and asthma services, black youth received fewer primary care services in eight out of 12 studies when compared to whites, and Hispanic youth received fewer services in six out of 11 studies. In terms of mental health, blacks received fewer services in six out of nine studies, and Hispanics received fewer services in three out of six studies..."
Pataki hit for veto of electroshock bill (New York) Democrat & Chronicle story - "A mental-health group bashed Gov. George Pataki on Wednesday for vetoing a bill to require new reports on electroshock therapy, saying he sided with doctors and hospitals instead of patients.'Were incensed that the governor would choose the convenience of doctors' over the wishes of patients, said Harvey Rosenthal, director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services."
Beaufort Memorial Hospital to keep mental health ward (South Carolina) Beaufort Gazette story - "Beaufort Memorial Hospital's mental health unit will not be affected by the hospital's ongoing bed shortage, despite fears that reached all the way to the Beaufort County Council chambers this summer. The hospital's board of trustees Wednesday approved next year's budget, which includes an operational, but perhaps reduced, mental health ward. ... The unit's future has been up in the air for the past few months as hospital officials worked to deal with a bed shortage that causes up to 11 patients a day to remain in the emergency room awaiting a regular hospital room..."
