Alabama: Round 1 - State-Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.More than 670,000 Alabamians under age sixty-five, or about 16 percent of the population, are uninsured. Most uninsured Alabamians are in working families (77 percent) where at least one person is employed either full time or part time. The largest total number and percentage of uninsured is aged nineteen to thirty and the uninsured are disproportionately people of color, although whites make up the majority of the uninsured population. The state insurance market is dominated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama (BCBSAL). In 2010, it had a 91 percent market share in the individual market with some 121,000 covered lives

Evolutionary history influences the salinity preference of bacterial taxa in wetland soils

Salinity is a major driver of bacterial community composition across the globe. Despite growing recognition that different bacterial species are present or active at different salinities, the mechanisms by which salinity structures community composition remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that these patterns reflect ecological coherence in the salinity preferences of phylogenetic groups using a reciprocal transplant experiment of fresh- and saltwater wetland soils. The salinity of both the origin and host environments affected community composition (16S rRNA gene sequences) and activity (CO2 and CH4 production, and extracellular enzyme activity). These changes in community composition and activity rates were strongly correlated, which suggests the effect of environment on function could be mediated, at least in part, by microbial community composition. Based on their distribution across treatments, each phylotype was categorized as having a salinity preference (freshwater, saltwater, or none) and phylogenetic analyses revealed a significant influence of evolutionary history on these groupings. This finding was corroborated by examining the salinity preferences of high-level taxonomic groups. For instance, we found that the majority of α- and γ-proteobacteria in these wetland soils preferred saltwater, while many β-proteobacteria prefer freshwater. Overall, our results indicate the effect of salinity on bacterial community composition results from phylogenetically-clustered salinity preferences

Five-State Study of ACA Marketplace Competition

The health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were intended to broaden health insurance coverage by making it relatively easy for the uninsured, armed with income-related federal subsidies, to choose health plans that met their needs from an array of competing options. The further hope was that competition among health plans on the exchanges would lead to lower costs and higher value for consumers, because inefficient, low-value plans would lose out in the competitive market place. This study sought to understand the diverse experience in five states under the ACA in order to gain insights for improving competition in the private health insurance industry and the implementation of the ACA.In spring 2016, the insurance marketplaces had been operating for nearly three full years. There were numerous press stories of plans' decisions to enter or leave selected states or market areas within states and to narrow provider networks by including fewer choices among hospitals, medical specialists, and other providers. There were also beginning to be stories of insurer requests for significant premium increases. However, there was no clear understanding of how common these practices were, nor how and why practices differed across carriers, markets, and state regulatory settings.This project used the ACA Implementation Research Network to conduct field research in California, Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. In each state, expert field researchers engaged directly with marketplace stakeholders, including insurance carriers, provider groups, state regulators, and consumer engagement organizations, to identify and understand their various decisions. This focus included an effort to understand why carriers choose to enter or exit markets and the barriers they faced, how provider networks were built, and how state regulatory decisions affected decision-making. Ultimately, it sought to find where and why certain markets are successful and competitive and how less competitive markets might be improved.The study of five states was not intended to provide statistically meaningful generalizations about the functioning of the marketplace exchanges. Rather, it was intended to accomplish two other objectives. First, the study was designed to generate hypotheses about the development and evolution of the exchanges that might be tested with "harder" data from all the exchanges. Second, it sought to describe the potentially idiosyncratic nature of the marketplaces in each of the five states. Political and economic circumstances may differ substantially across markets. Policymakers and market participants need to appreciate the nuances of different local settings if programs are to be successful. What works in Michigan may not work in Texas and vice versa. Field research of this sort can give researchers and policymakers insight into how idiosyncratic local factors matter in practice.In brief, our five states had four years of experience in the open enrollment periods from 2014 through 2017. The states array themselves in a continuum of apparent success in enhancing and maintaining competition among insurers. California and Michigan appear to have had success in nurturing insurer competition, in at least the urban areas of their states. Florida, North Carolina, and Texas were less successful. This divergence is recent, however. As recently as the 2015 and 2016 open enrollment periods, all of the states had what appeared to be promising, if not always robust, insurance competition. Large changes occurred in the run-up to the 2017 open enrollment period

Health Care Consumers: Choices and Constraints

This article summarizes the research and data currently available on different dimensions of consumer choice. These dimensions include not only whether to participate in a health care plan and which plan to select if given a choice but also the decisions that lead to having a choice and the implications of making the choice. Data are presented on what choices consumers face, how many are given what kinds of choices, what constraints they face, what we know about how they make these choices, and what information they are given and what they use. The majority of Americans are offered some kind of health insurance plan either through their place of employment or as a dependent on someone else’s employer-sponsored health plan. About half of those offered health insurance are offered a choice, usually of only two or three plans. The majority elect to participate in one of those plans.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68465/2/10.1177_107755879905600102.pd

Deep GALEX Imaging of the HST/COSMOS Field: A First Look at the Morphology of z~0.7 Star-forming Galaxies

We present a study of the morphological nature of redshift z~0.7 star-forming galaxies using a combination of HST/ACS, GALEX and ground-based images of the COSMOS field. Our sample consists of 8,146 galaxies, 5,777 of which are detected in the GALEX near-ultraviolet band down to a limiting magnitude of 25.5 (AB). We make use of the UV to estimate star formation rates, correcting for the effect of dust using the UV-slope, and compute, from the ACS F814W images, the C,A,S,G,M20 morphological parameters for all objects in our sample. We observe a morphological bimodality in the galaxy population and show that it has a strong correspondence with the FUV - g color bimodality. We conclude that UV-optical color predominantly evolves concurrently with morphology. We observe many of the most star-forming galaxies to have morphologies approaching that of early-type galaxies, and interpret this as evidence that strong starburst events are linked to bulge growth and constitute a process through which galaxies can be brought from the blue to the red sequence while simultaneously modifying their morphology accordingly. We conclude that the red sequence has continued growing at z~<0.7. We also observe z~0.7 galaxies to have physical properties similar to that of local galaxies, except for higher star formation rates. Whence we infer that the dimming of star-forming galaxies is responsible for most of the evolution in the star formation rate density of the Universe since that redshift, although our data are also consistent with a mild number evolution. [abridged]Comment: 29 pages including 22 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJS COSMOS Special Issue. A copy of the paper with high resolution figures is available at http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~michel/galex_cosmos_paper.pd

Revision and Update of the Consensus Definitions of Invasive Fungal Disease From the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium.

BACKGROUND: Invasive fungal diseases (IFDs) remain important causes of morbidity and mortality. The consensus definitions of the Infectious Diseases Group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the Mycoses Study Group have been of immense value to researchers who conduct clinical trials of antifungals, assess diagnostic tests, and undertake epidemiologic studies. However, their utility has not extended beyond patients with cancer or recipients of stem cell or solid organ transplants. With newer diagnostic techniques available, it was clear that an update of these definitions was essential. METHODS: To achieve this, 10 working groups looked closely at imaging, laboratory diagnosis, and special populations at risk of IFD. A final version of the manuscript was agreed upon after the groups' findings were presented at a scientific symposium and after a 3-month period for public comment. There were several rounds of discussion before a final version of the manuscript was approved. RESULTS: There is no change in the classifications of "proven," "probable," and "possible" IFD, although the definition of "probable" has been expanded and the scope of the category "possible" has been diminished. The category of proven IFD can apply to any patient, regardless of whether the patient is immunocompromised. The probable and possible categories are proposed for immunocompromised patients only, except for endemic mycoses. CONCLUSIONS: These updated definitions of IFDs should prove applicable in clinical, diagnostic, and epidemiologic research of a broader range of patients at high-risk

Crossing the Dripline to 11N Using Elastic Resonance Scattering

The level structure of the unbound nucleus 11N has been studied by 10C+p elastic resonance scattering in inverse geometry with the LISE3 spectrometer at GANIL, using a 10C beam with an energy of 9.0 MeV/u. An additional measurement was done at the A1200 spectrometer at MSU. The excitation function above the 10C+p threshold has been determined up to 5 MeV. A potential-model analysis revealed three resonance states at energies 1.27 (+0.18-0.05) MeV (Gamma=1.44 +-0.2 MeV), 2.01(+0.15-0.05) MeV, (Gamma=0.84 +-$0.2 MeV) and 3.75(+-0.05) MeV, (Gamma=0.60 +-0.05 MeV) with the spin-parity assignments I(pi) =1/2+, 1/2- and 5/2+, respectively. Hence, 11N is shown to have a ground state parity inversion completely analogous to its mirror partner, 11Be. A narrow resonance in the excitation function at 4.33 (+-0.05) MeV was also observed and assigned spin-parity 3/2-.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, twocolumn Accepted for publication in PR

Barriers to leisure participation for people with dementia and their carers: An exploratory analysis of carer and people with dementia's experiences.

Leisure has emerged as a prominent research theme within the growing body of knowledge on dementia, with a focus on physical activity. Yet participation in any form of leisure presupposes an ability to freely choose to partake in activities and to negotiate one's way around key barriers. In the case of dementia, the ability to undertake leisure activities is subject to a greater range of barriers, structured in a hierarchical manner that contributes to social exclusion if not addressed. This study based on focus groups with people with dementia and their family members conducted in Dorset, UK illustrates a range of barriers to leisure participation. How to create or maintain leisure opportunities for those living with dementia where households affected by dementia do not adopt avoidance behaviour, compounding a sense of isolation and exclusion is a challenge. Leisure can be an important strategy framed as a form of resistance to the social disabilities experienced by those living with dementia and it is potentially isolating impact