Health Statistics

This report concludes a comprehensive evaluation of The Data & Democracy II project, a program funded by The California Endowment and implemented by UCLA. These organizations sought to increase the capacity of local community-based organizations (CBOs) to collect, analyze, and interpret data to identify and prioritize areas for action. The program was structured after the Train-the-Trainer model, in which a group from local CBOs is trained in these skills and required to disseminate the information by conducting workshops in their own communities. We examine the program's effectiveness, long-term impacts, and challenges through observations, surveys and case studies.

The Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) is a detailed microsimulation model of the health care system. It estimates the cost and coverage effects of proposed health care policy options and is designed for quick-turn around analysis of policy proposals—from novel health insurance offerings and strategies for increasing affordability to state-specific-proposals. This document provides an overview of HIPSM, describes the type of policies it can examine and studies that have used the model, and point to potential future studies that the model makes possible, including analyses of options left open to states after health reform.

The Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey (MHIS) collects information on health insurance coverage and access to and use of health care for the non-institutionalized population in Massachusetts. It is funded by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) and is conducted by the Urban Institute, along with its subcontractor, Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). This report examines health care access and use in 2008 in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey (MHIS) collects information on health insurance coverage and access to and use of health care for the non-institutionalized population in Massachusetts. It is funded by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) and is conducted by the Urban Institute, along with its subcontractor, Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). This report presents the detail tabulations from the 2008 MHIS on health insurance coverage and access to and use of health care in Massachusetts.

The Cato Institute recently released a study of health reform in Massachusetts by Aaron Yelowitz and Michael F. Cannon, entitled "The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain." That study reports fewer gains in health insurance coverage and higher costs than have been reported by earlier studies. As the Urban Institute has done a substantial amount of research on health reform in Massachusetts, we have received a number of requests to reconcile the findings on health insurance coverage from the Cato study with the findings from earlier work. This paper is a response to those requests.