Who Gained the Most Under Health Reform in Massachusetts?

Outlines key components of the state's 2007 insurance coverage reform and the populations targeted. Compares the reform's impact across population groups, by age, gender, race/ethnicity, health status, employment, and geography

What Is the Evidence on Health Reform in Massachusetts and How Might the Lessons From Massachusetts Apply to National Health Reform?

Examines the gains in health coverage, healthcare access, use, affordability, and quality Massachusetts has seen as a result of health reform, as well as the challenges in sustaining reform as provider capacity remains limited and healthcare costs rise

The Impact of Health Reform on Underinsurance in Massachusetts: Do the Insured Have Adequate Protection?

Compares the state's uninsurance rate following the 2007 reform to 2006 and national rates, by income. Examines reported problems with paying medical bills to assess the extent to which the "minimum creditable coverage" rule protects against high costs

On the Road to Universal Coverage: Impacts of Reform in Massachusetts at One Year

Examines the early results of the state's efforts to achieve near-universal coverage through a combination of Medicaid expansions, subsidized private insurance, insurance market reforms, and required participation by individuals and employers

The Federal Reserve seeks to protect consumers

The Federal Reserve plays a key role in protecting consumers when they seek financial services. That role revolves around four pillars: rulemaking, enforcement, community affairs and consumer education.Consumer protection

If Fed becomes super regulator, politicians would be its kryptonite

If given broader regulatory authority, the Fed will probably face new challenges in executing its traditional responsibilities and in preserving its independence against political pressure.Risk management ; Federal Reserve System ; Federal Reserve System - Independence

Women without a Voice: The Paradox of Silence in the Works of Sandra Cisneros, Shashi Deshpande and Azar Nafisi

Women of every culture face a similar problem: loss of voice. Their lives are permeated with silence. Whether their silence results from a patriarchal society that prohibits women from asserting their identity or from a social expectation of gender roles that confine women to an expressive domain-submissive, nurturing, passive, and domestic-rather than an instrumental role where men are dominant, affective and aggressive-women share the common bond of a debilitating silence. Maria Racine, in her analysis of Janie in Zora Neale Hurston\u27s Their Eyes Were Watching God, reaffirms the pervasiveness of this bond: For women, silence has crossed every racial and cultural boundary (283). Indeed, Elaine Mar, a Chinese-American writer, in her memoir, Paper Daughter, elucidates the implications of silence for women, Like Mother I was learning to disappear. Frequently, I sought refuge with her in the basement room, in the silence of empty spaces. But I was also learning to vanish in full sight of others, retreating into myself when physical flight wasn\u27t possible. My voice withered. Silent desire parched my throat (48). Silence and loss of voice debilitate and stifle women, as they are forced to sublimate their identity in order to survive in their worlds

Why Do People Lack Health Insurance?

Currently, 46 million people or nearly one in five nonelderly adults and children lack health insurance in the United States, an increase of 6 million since 2000. The recent rise in uninsurance has been attributed to a number of factors, including rising health care costs, the economic downturn, an erosion of employer-based insurance, and public program cutbacks. Developing effective strategies for reducing uninsurance requires understanding why people lack insurance coverage. This brief looks at the reasons people report being uninsured overall and by key population subgroups (defined by age, race/ethnicity, health status, and family and employment characteristics). We also examine how those reasons have changed over time

Health Reform in Massachusetts: An Update on Insurance Coverage and Support for Reform as of Fall 2008

Provides an update on the impact of the state's 2006 health reform on the coverage of 16- to 64-year olds and on support for health reform. Analyzes demographic characteristics, education, work status, and geographic location of the insured and uninsured