How the Affordable Care Act Is Helping Young Adults Stay Covered

Based on 2010 Biennial Health Insurance Survey data, examines how provisions to extend eligibility for Medicaid and dependent coverage and create insurance exchanges will affect coverage and access to care among young adults

What Americans Think of the New Insurance Marketplaces and Medicaid Expansion: Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Marketplace Survey, 2013

The Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces are opening for enrollment on October 1, 2013. The Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Marketplace Survey, 2013, finds that only two of five adults are aware of the marketplaces or of potential financial help that may be available to them to pay for plans purchased though the marketplaces. However, three of five adults who might be eligible for these new options said they were likely to take advantage of them. The survey also finds broad support for state expansion of the Medicaid program, even in states that have not yet decided to expand their programs. While outreach and education are critical to ensuring that those eligible for the new coverage options will enroll, the survey results suggest that eligible Americans will likely take advantage of the law's insurance reforms in the months and years to come

Gaps in Health Insurance: Why So Many Americans Experience Breaks in Coverage and How the Affordable Care Act Will Help

Presents findings from the Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults, including the percentage of those who were uninsured during 2011, reasons for gaps in coverage, access to regular and preventive care, and the impact of federal healthcare reform

Realizing Health Reform's Potential: When Unemployed Means Uninsured: The Toll of Job Loss on Health Coverage, and How the Affordable Care Act Will Help

Examines how the 2010 healthcare reform will significantly expand affordable health coverage options for the unemployed who cannot afford COBRA. Calls for re-establishing COBRA premium subsidies to bridge coverage gaps until it is implemented in 2014

Case Mix, Costs, and Outcomes: Differences Between Faculty and Community Services in a University Hospital

In order to gain insight into the possible consequences of prospective payment for university hospitals, we studied 2,025 admissions to the faculty and community services of a university hospital, measuring differences in case mix, costs, and outcomes. The faculty service case mix was disproportionately weighted toward the more costly diagnoses, but even after adjustment for diagnosis-related groups (DRGs), costs were 11 percent higher on the faculty service. The differential was proportionately greater for diagnostic costs than for routine or treatment costs, and the differential was particularly large (70 percent) for patients with a predicted probability of death (DTHRISK) of .25 or greater.The in-hospital mortality rate was appreciably lower on the faculty service after adjustment for case mix and patient characteristics. The mortality differential between the two services was particularly large for patients in the high death risk category. Comparison of a matched sample of 51 pairs of admissions from the high death risk category confirmed the above results with respect to costs and in-hospital mortality, but follow-up revealed that the mortality rates were equal for the two services at nine months after discharge.

Seismic performance of reinforced concrete tall buildings with conventional and non-conventional construction systems

Currently in the city of Lima there is a limited number of high-rise buildings. Therefore, there is not much literature on this type of building in Peru. Peruvian codes focus on medium and low-rise buildings. For this reason, studies are required to analyze and design these tall buildings more appropriately according to the reality of the country. In this article, a pushover modal analysis of 6 types of 35-Story reinforced concrete buildings in the city of Lima will be developed. Three building models with different structural systems and square and rectangular plan are proposed, being the areas of 29m × 29m and 52m × 26m respectively. These structural systems are rigid core and frames with an energy dissipation system (fluid viscous dampers and shear-link-bozzo dissipators SLB) in order to study their behavior against seismic stresses. These buildings were based on the criteria and requirements of the current codes in the country as well as the distribution of the floor plan of buildings commonly used for offices and homes. Natural periods (T) were found to range from 2.6 to 3.3 seconds for rigid core buildings. There is an increase for viscous damping buildings from 4.2 to 5.4 seconds and also for SLB devices to range from 3.7 to 4.6 seconds. In turn, modal static nonlinear analysis was performed to obtain the capacity curves for each type of building, which were compared with the seismic demands according to the design provisions of the Peruvian seismic standard E.030 and an average of design spectra. of acceleration records of severe seismic events in Peru and scaled in a range of 0.2T to 1.5T. The performance points for each building case were determined following the ATC-40 methodologies, finding that tall buildings with a rigid core have approximately twice the stiffness of buildings with SLB dampers, as well as low ductility, unlike buildings with dissipators, that have a high ductility

Insuring the Future: Current Trends in Health Coverage and the Effects of Implementing the Affordable Care Act

The major insurance coverage provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect in January 2014, providing new insurance options for people without health insurance and insurance market protections for consumers. The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2012 finds that the reform law has significantly increased health insurance coverage of young adults. But the findings also underscore why it is critical that implementation continue on schedule. Nearly half (46%) of adults ages 19 to 64, or an estimated 84 million people, did not have insurance for the full year or were underinsured and unprotected from high out-of-pocket costs. Two of five (41%) adults, or 75 million people, reported they had problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical debt. And more than two of five (43%), or 80 million people, reported cost-related problems getting needed health care