<< Newer

Summa forum to offer health-care solutions, Akron Beacon Journal - (October 3, 2008)

The event also will feature speeches by Dr. Robert Berenson, a Medicare expert and senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.; and Chris Jennings, a national health policy expert who served as senior health-care adviser to President Clinton.

Likewise, Berenson plans to share information about recent proposals by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to update Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people ages 65 or older and some younger disabled Americans.

Health care reform and the health of the economy, Reno Gazette-Journal - (September 30, 2008)

Urban Institute researchers Stan Dorn and John Holahan conclude that "the real question facing the public and policymakers is determining not the health policy with the strongest or weakest role for government, but the policy that yields the best results for the American people in terms of coverage, quality, choice and cost."

States act to cushion Wall Street meltdown, Stateline.org - (September 30, 2008)

States also are watching the unemployment numbers, which also have a fiscal policy impact. When people lose jobs, they lose employer-sponsored health insurance and often turn to Medicaid, the state-federal health program that serves 59 million needy. Over the last year, the national unemployment rate rose 1.4 percentage points to 6.1 percent, the highest level in five years. An Urban Institute study this year estimated that a 1 percentage point increase in the national unemployment rate makes Medicaid rolls bulge by 1 million and ultimately cuts 3 percent to 4 percent from state revenues.

Health plans pit low-cost vs. public coverage, The Des Moines Register - (September 29, 2008)

If the country's finances get too depleted, both parties could lose their zeal to retool the health care system, said John Holahan, director of health policy for the Urban Institute think tank. "I hope that doesn't happen, because the implications of doing nothing are pretty serious," he said.

Holahan, the Urban Institute researcher, said the most likely winners under McCain's plan would be young, healthy people in regions with relatively low health care costs, such as Iowa. Those people are the most likely to find suitable insurance policies for $2,500, he said. But older people or those with health problems are less likely to find such cheap coverage, he said.

Why does Fox Chase want to come here?, The News Journal - (September 29, 2008)

A recent study by the Urban Institute and the New York Academy of Medicine shows that promoting primary prevention would save health care costs. It can be found at: www.TrustHealthierAmerica.org.

Rivals' prescriptions for an ailing system, The Philadelphia Inquirer - (September 27, 2008)

The Urban Institute, which analyzed both plans, said Obama's would cover about two-thirds of the uninsured, while McCain's would have little effect.

Save Lives Instead of Bankers' Bloated Pay: Michael R. Sesit, Bloomberg  - (September 26, 2008)

Saving someone's life is more uplifting than preserving Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer John Mack's bonus. That's right, saving a life. An estimated 22,000 people age 25-64 in the U.S. died in 2006 -- and 137,000 from 2000 through 2006 -- because they lacked health insurance, according to an Urban Institute study in January.

Mandate foe, not medicine’s, Las Vegas Sun - (September 24, 2008)

<< Newer

Stan Dorn, a health care analyst for the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, said the leading causes of the high rates of uninsured are lots of low-wage jobs and a flimsy health care safety net, not regulatory issues.

Dorn points out that employers whose workers make $20,000 a year can’t economically justify providing employees a $10,000-per-year insurance policy. Reducing mandates and taking the cost down to $9,000, as Heck proposes, won’t change the equation, Dorn said.

Think Tank Roundup: Cannot Escape Polling,The American Prospect, Tapped blog  - (September 23, 2008)

More health-care plan analysis. The Urban Institute has recently conducted a comparative analysis of the pros and cons of the McCain and Obama health-care plans. Obama's plan would dramatically increase health-insurance coverage, substantially increase access to affordable and adequate coverage for those with the highest needs, significantly increase the affordability of care for the low-income, and reduce the growth in health spending. On the downside, his cost estimate might be somewhat low, his plan would leave 6 percent uninsured (necessitating the maintenance of the current inefficient safety-net system), and his employer mandate may engender significant political opposition. McCain's plan, by comparison, "represents a philosophical advance" in its methodology but seems to be heavily problematic in that his proposal would change how many obtain insurance, make coverage less accessible for those with health problems, have a high budget cost, and have little effect on the number of uninsured. -- ZA

Death and the Uninsured, The American Spectator - (September 22, 2008)

That statistic of deaths due to lack of health insurance has been frequently cited in health care debates since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported it in 2002. A recent update from the liberal Urban Institute showed that the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance had subsequently increased to 22,000.

Yet the statistic has come under increasing fire by critics who questions its accuracy. Linda Gorman, a senior fellow with the conservative Independence Institute in Denver, said, "It's not a robust result. You don't make good public policy on such results."

One can follow the IOM's methodology in determining death due to uninsurance by reading the Urban Institute report. In short, the IOM used the statistic from the JAMA study to calculate how many people would have died if everyone in the U.S. was insured. It then subtracted that number from the number of people who did die to determine the number of people who died due to lack of insurance.

Jack Hadley, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, concurs. Studies he has conducted that follow the insurance status of the older Americans over time show that uninsurance "tends to have a somewhat large effect on mortality," he said. "More recent studies show that the relation between insurance and morality is pretty robust." However, those studies do not form the basis for the 18,000 figure.

Older >>