Children's Health Coverage Facts and Figures

Outlines trends in children's health insurance in California. Reviews 1997-2009 milestones in expanding coverage and examines uninsurance rates; eligibility for and enrollment in public programs; sources of coverage by income and age; and access to care

Healthy Kids Program and the Safety Net: Perceptions of Community Clinic Administrators

Based on interviews with clinic CEOs, assesses the impact of the program to provide comprehensive health insurance to children not eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, including enrollment, services extended, and clinic operations and finances

Advocacy coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate: Exploring coalition structure, policy beliefs, resources, and strategies.

Advocacy coalitions often play an important role in the state health policymaking process, yet little is known about their structure, composition, and behavior. In 2008, California became the first state to enact a menu labeling law. Using the advocacy coalition framework, we examine different facets of the coalitions involved in California's menu labeling policy debate. We use a qualitative research approach to identify coalition members and explore their expressed beliefs and policy arguments, resources, and strategies by analyzing legislative documents (n = 87) and newspaper articles (n = 78) produced between 1999 and 2009. Between 2003 and 2008, six menu labeling bills were introduced in the state's legislature. We found the issue received increasing media attention during this period. We identified two advocacy coalitions involved in the debate-a public health (PH) coalition and an industry coalition. State organizations acted as coalition leaders and participated for a longer duration than elected officials. The structure and composition of each coalition varied. PH coalition leadership and membership notably increased compared to the industry coalition. The PH coalition, led by nonprofit PH and health organizations, promoted a clear and consistent message around informed decision making. The industry coalition, led by a state restaurant association, responded with cost and implementation arguments. Each coalition used various resources and strategies to advance desired outcomes. PH coalition leaders were particularly effective at using resources and employing advocacy strategies, which included engaging state legislators as coalition members, using public opinion polls and information, and leveraging media resources to garner support. Policy precedence and a local policy push emerged as important policymaking strategies. Areas for future research on the state health policymaking process are discussed

Covering California's Kids: The Impact of Healthy Kids on Access, Health Status and Costs

Summarizes how the implementation of CHIs designed to improve children's access to primary care helped reduce preventable hospitalizations among lower-income children. Includes policy implications

Covering California's Kids: Functioning at the Brink: The Children's Health Initiatives Have Grown but May Not Survive

Highlights efforts by the Healthy Kids programs to provide coverage for California's uninsured children, the utilization of preventive health care, the long waitlists due to funding limitations, and policy implications of anticipated funding deficits

Covering California's Kids: Outcomes from Children's Health Initiatives in California

Examines the outcomes and policy implications of CHIs and the Healthy Kids insurance program in the state

Evaluation of a digital diabetes prevention program adapted for the Medicaid population: Study design and methods for a non-randomized, controlled trial.

Previous studies have shown that lifestyle modification can successfully prevent or delay development of type 2 diabetes. This trial aimed to test if an underserved, low-income population would engage in a digital diabetes prevention program and successfully achieve lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes. Participants were recruited from three health care facilities serving low-income populations. The inclusion criteria were: a recent blood test indicating prediabetes, body mass index (BMI) \u3e 24 kg/

Le Forum, Vol. 44 #3

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/francoamericain_forum/1105/thumbnail.jp

Manipulating the alpha level cannot cure significance testing

We argue that making accept/reject decisions on scientific hypotheses, including a recent call for changing the canonical alpha level from p = 0.05 to p = 0.005, is deleterious for the finding of new discoveries and the progress of science. Given that blanket and variable alpha levels both are problematic, it is sensible to dispense with significance testing altogether. There are alternatives that address study design and sample size much more directly than significance testing does; but none of the statistical tools should be taken as the new magic method giving clear-cut mechanical answers. Inference should not be based on single studies at all, but on cumulative evidence from multiple independent studies. When evaluating the strength of the evidence, we should consider, for example, auxiliary assumptions, the strength of the experimental design, and implications for applications. To boil all this down to a binary decision based on a p-value threshold of 0.05, 0.01, 0.005, or anything else, is not acceptable

Electron Cloud Mitigation in the Spallation Neutron Source Ring

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accumulator ring is designed to accumulate, via H{sup -} injection, protons of 2 MW beam power at 1 GeV kinetic energy at a repetition rate of 60 Hz [1]. At such beam intensity, electron-cloud is expected to be one of the intensity-limiting mechanisms that complicate ring operations. This paper summarizes mitigation strategy adopted in the design, both in suppressing electron-cloud formation and in enhancing Landau damping, including tapered magnetic field and monitoring system for the collection of stripped electrons at injection, TiN coated beam chamber for suppression of the secondary yield, clearing electrodes dedicated for the injection region and parasitic on BPMs around the ring, solenoid windings in the collimation region, and planning of vacuum systems for beam scrubbing upon operation