Decade of Decline: A Survey of Employer Health Insurance Coverage in New York State

Presents findings from a survey of New York-based firms on trends in employer-sponsored coverage during the recession, including offer rates, eligibility, take-up, and coverage rates; premiums; employer and employee costs; and support for reform measures

Retiree Health Benefits After Medicare Part D: A Snapshot of Prescription Drug Coverage

Based on employer surveys, assesses how the introduction of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit affected employer-based retiree, drug, and other health coverage

The Commonwealth Fund/National Opinion Research Center Survey of Retiree Health Benefits, 2005: A Chartbook

Analyzes the state of retiree health benefits, based on a survey of public and private employers. Looks at the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit, Governmental Accounting Standards Board regulations, and past and future changes to retiree benefits

Science Fiction and the Myth of Trajectory Evolution

Stephen Jay Gould first proposed the idea of “iconographies of progress.” Today, one of the most prominent forms of progress iconography is the science fiction story. Science fiction as a genre frequently portrays evolution as a linear trajectory of increasing complexity, and in doing so, furthers a worldview that is not unlike the pre-Darwin understanding of human beings as both the center and the pinnacle of the natural world

Small Employer Perspectives On The Affordable Care Act's Premiums, SHOP Exchanges, And Self-Insurance

Beginning January 1, 2014, small businesses having no more than fifty full-time-equivalent workers will be able to obtain healthinsurance for their employees through Small Business Health OptionsProgram (SHOP) exchanges in every state. Although the Affordable Care Act intended the exchanges to make the purchasing of insurance moreattractive and affordable to small businesses, it is not yet known how they will respond to the exchanges. Based on a telephone survey of 604 randomly selected private firms having 3 -- 50 employees, we found that both firms that offered health coverage and those that did not rated most features of SHOP exchanges highly but were also very price sensitive.More than 92 percent of nonoffering small firms said that if they were to offer coverage, it would be "very" or "somewhat" important to them that premium costs be less than they are today. Eighty percent of offering firms use brokers who commonly perform functions of benefit managers -- functions that the SHOP exchanges may assume. Twenty-six percent of firms using brokers reported discussing self-insuring with their brokers. An increase in the number of self-insured small employers could pose a threat to SHOP exchanges and other small-group insurance reforms

Preventive interventions and sustained attachment security in maltreated children : a 12-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Dept. of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, 2012.The stability of attachment security and behavior problems among maltreated children was investigated through a 12-month follow-up of a randomized preventive intervention trial. One-year-old maltreated infants (n = 137) and their mothers were randomly assigned to one of three intervention conditions (a) child-parent psychotherapy (CPP), (b) psychoeducational parenting intervention (PPI), and (c) community standard (CS). A fourth group of nonmaltreated infants (n =52) and their mothers served as a low-income normative comparison (NC) group. At baseline (Time 1), infants in the maltreatment groups had significantly higher rates of disorganized attachment than did infants in the NC group. Mothers in the maltreatment groups reported experiencing more traumatic events and were more likely to meet criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mood disorders, and substance abuse and/or dependence than were mothers in the NC group. At post-intervention (Time 2), when the children were age 26 months, children in the CPP and PPI groups demonstrated substantial increases in secure attachment, whereas this change was not found in the CS and NC groups. At the 12-month follow-up assessment (Time 3), when the children were age 38 months, children in the CPP group had higher rates of secure attachment and lower rates of disorganized attachment than did children in the PPI or CS groups. Maternal history of childhood maltreatment predicted children’s disorganized attachment at Time 2 and Time 3 and maternal PTSD predicted insecure attachment at Time 2. Neither maternal trauma history nor maternal psychopathology influenced attachment when accounting for treatment effects at Time 2 or Time 3. Receipt of intervention had an indirect effect on maternal report of children’s behavior problems at Time 3 through the fostering of secure attachment at post-intervention

Health Insurance Reforms: How Will They Affect Employment-Based Coverage in California?

The objectives of this issue brief are: (1) to examine how insurance reforms required by the Affordable Care Act will affect benefit packages currently offered by California employers and (2) to estimate out-of-pocket expenses and actuarial values for households with employment-based health plans in California in 2010