Medicare and Medicaid Services Online

Government initiatives in the United States have been passed in an effort to increase citizen usage of e-government programs. One such service is the availability of online health insurance information. However, not all demographic groups have been equally able to access these services, primarily the poor and rural American. As more legislation is passed, including the advancement of broadband services to remote areas, infrastructure barriers are being removed, opening access to Medicare and Medicaid websites for these vulnerable groups. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze factors predicting the impact of recent government actions on citizen access to health insurance information online. This topic is explored using multivariate regression analysis and individual level data from the Internet and American Life Project. The findings suggest that healthcare needs and quality of Internet access may be playing a more important role in health insurance information services than other factors

E-Government, M-Government, L-Government. Exploring future ICT applications in public administration

The development of information and communication technologies (ICT) brings about considerable changes in the ways public administration provides information and delivers services to citizens, businesses, and other public administrations. This chapter reviews the application of ICT in the provision of public administration services. E-government tools have been implemented in various countries in the world and enabled the strengthening of existing public administration services and the activation of innovative ones. M-government tools, which are related to the emergence and diffusion of Internet mobile technology and devices, allow to both overcome infrastructure deficits and provide innovative services which are particularly sensitive to users' context conditions. Finally, l-government tools – i.e., ubiquitous, seamless, user-centric, and automated application of Internet technology to public administration services – have the potential to further redefine the terms of access of users to public administration services and to enhance the ties between citizens and businesses and the government