Fertility-a human right worthy of mandated insurance coverage: the evolution, limitations, and future of access to care.

We review the history, current status, and potential future of state infertility mandates and focus on the business implications of mandates and on the inadequacies and reproductive injustice resulting from gaps between legislative intent and practical implementation. Nineteen states have passed laws that require insurers to either cover or offer coverage for infertility diagnoses and treatment. The qualifications for coverage, extent of coverage, and exemptions vary drastically from one state to another, resulting in deficiencies in access to care even within mandated states for certain groups, such as single individuals, patients in same-sex relationships, and patients pursuing fertility preservation. Although insurance coverage of fertility services in the United States has expanded as an increasing number of states have enacted infertility mandates, significant gaps in implementation and access remain even among states with existing mandates. Provider, patient, and legislative advocacy is warranted in the name of reproductive justice to expand insurance coverage and, in turn, maximize reproductive outcomes, which have been shown to improve as financial barriers are lifted.

Health Insurance Coverage Mandates: Colorectal Cancer Screening in the Post-ACA Era.

Building a culture of precision public health requires research that includes health delivery model with innovative systems, health policies, and programs that support this vision. Health insurance mandates are effective mechanisms that many state policymakers use to increase the utilization of preventive health services, such as colorectal cancer screening. This study estimated the effects of health insurance mandate variations on colorectal cancer screening post Affordable Care Act (ACA) era. The study analyzed secondary data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the NCI State Cancer Legislative Database (SCLD) from 1997 to 2014. BRFSS data were merged with SCLD data by state ID. The target population was U.S. adults, age 50 to 74, who lived in states where health insurance was mandated or nonmandated before and after the implementation of ACA. Using a difference-in-differences (DD) approach with a time-series analysis, we evaluated the effects of health insurance mandates on colorectal cancer screening status based on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines. The adjusted average marginal effects from the DD model indicate that health insurance mandates increased the probability of up-to-date screenings versus noncompliance by 2.8% points, suggesting that an estimated 2.37 million additional age-eligible persons would receive a screening with such health insurance mandates. Compliant participants' mean age was 65 years and 57% were women (n = 32,569). Our findings are robust for various model specifications. Health insurance mandates that lower out-of-pocket expenses constitute an effective approach to increase colorectal cancer screenings for the population, as a whole. PREVENTION RELEVANCE: The value added includes future health care reforms that increase access to preventive services, such as CRC screening, are likely with lower out-of-pocket costs and will increase the number of people who are considered "up-to-date". Such policies have been used historically to improve health outcomes, and they are currently being used as public health strategies to increase access to preventive health services in an effort to improve the nation's health.

Factors Contributing to the Rising National Cost of Glucose-Lowering Medicines for Diabetes During 2005-2007 and 2015-2017.

OBJECTIVE: We examined changes in glucose-lowering medication spending and quantified the magnitude of factors that are contributing to these changes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we estimated the change in spending on glucose-lowering medications during 2005-2007 and 2015-2017 among adults aged ≥18 years with diabetes. We decomposed the increase in total spending by medication groups: for insulin, by human and analog; and for noninsulin, by metformin, older, newer, and combination medications. For each group, we quantified the contributions by the number of users and cost-per-user. Costs were in 2017 U.S. dollars. RESULTS: National spending on glucose-lowering medications increased by $40.6 billion (240%), of which insulin and noninsulin medications contributed $28.6 billion (169%) and $12.0 billion (71%), respectively. For insulin, the increase was mainly associated with higher expenditures from analogs (156%). For noninsulin, the increase was a net effect of higher cost for newer medications (+88%) and decreased cost for older medications (-34%). Most of the increase in insulin spending came from the increase in cost-per-user. However, the increase in the number of users contributed more than cost-per-user in the rise of most noninsulin groups. CONCLUSIONS: The increase in national spending on glucose-lowering medications during the past decade was mostly associated with the increased costs for insulin, analogs in particular, and newer noninsulin medicines, and cost-per-user had a larger effect than the number of users. Understanding the factors contributing to the increase helps identify ways to curb the growth in costs.

California's Efforts To Cover The Uninsured: Successes, Building Blocks, And Challenges.

During the last century, California policy makers tried multiple approaches to achieve the goal of affordable health coverage for all: employer and individual requirements, single payer, and hybrids. All failed, primarily because of the amount of financing needed to cover the large numbers of uninsured Californians and the supermajority vote requirements for tax increases. These failures, however, provided important lessons for state and national reform efforts. More immediate success was achieved with incremental reforms, such as child health insurance, Medicaid section 1115 waivers, and the creation of purchasing pools. These reforms, as well as the experience derived from the broader coverage expansion efforts, contributed to the intellectual and policy frameworks that underlay major national reforms and created building blocks for the state's successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act. That act allowed California to meet its greatest need: the financing required to make a truly sizable dent in the numbers of uninsured Californians.

Medicare for the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon.

Medicare, a federally funded insurance program in the United States, is a complex program about which many physicians may not receive formal training or education. Plastic surgeons, residents, and advanced practitioners may benefit from at least a basic understanding of Medicare, its components, reimbursement methods, and upcoming health care trends. Medicare consists of Parts A through D, each responsible for a different form of insurance coverage. Medicare pays hospitals, physicians, and graduate medical education. Since the introduction of Medicare, several reforms and programs have been introduced, particularly in recent years with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Many of these changes are moving reimbursement systems away from the traditional fee-for-service model toward quality-of-care programs. The aim of this review is to provide a brief history of Medicare, explain the basics of coverage and relevant reforms, and describe how federal insurance programs relate to plastic surgery both at academic institutions and in a community practice environment.

Bridging the NCAA's Accident Insurance Coverage Gaps? A Deep Dive into the Uncertainties of Injury Coverage in College Contact Sports, and the Impact that has on Athletes' Future Physical and Financial Comfort.

This Note analyzes the flaws in the NCAA's current accidental injury health coverage policies for student-athletes and suggests ways to remedy the issues that plague student-athletes incurring serious injuries that may not be covered under current policies. Part I of this Note outlines the history of the NCAA and the policies relevant to the issues with accidental injury coverage currently in place. Part II looks at the significance of these coverage gaps in today's world of modern medicine and technology as well as the impact they have on the everyday life of college athletes. Part III suggests solutions to bridge the gaps in accidental injury coverage for the physical and financial futures of these student-athletes.

"Endeavoring to Carry On Their Work": The National Debate Over Midwives and Its Impact in Rhode Island, 1890-1940.

This article analyzes the national discourse over "the problem" of midwifery in medical literature and examines the impact of this dialogue on Rhode Island from 1890 to 1940. Doctors did not speak as a monolithic bloc on this "problem": some blamed midwives while others impugned poorly trained physicians. This debate led to curricula reform and to state laws to regulate midwifery. The attempt to eliminate midwives in the 1910s failed because of a shortage of trained obstetricians, and because of cultural barriers between immigrant and mainstream communities. A decrease in immigration, an increase in trained obstetricians, the growing notion of midwives as relics of an outdated past, and the emergence of insurance plans to cover "modern" hospital births led to a decline in midwifery.

Party control, policy reforms, and the impact on health insurance coverage in the U.S. states.

Objectives. One of the major policy concerns at the federal and state level is the rising number of individuals without health insurance. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether party control of government and various state reforms impact the percentage of the state population without health insurance.Methods. Using data from 1987­2007, I empirically examine whether party control and five state policy reforms reduce the uninsured population.Results. The results show that Republicans are more effective than Democrats at the state level at reducing insurance gaps and that three of five policy reforms explored appear to significantly expand insurance coverage.Conclusions. The results provide valuable insight into which components of health-care reform at the national level may help address the health insurance problem.

Queer(ed) risks: life insurance, HIV/AIDS, and the "gay question".

In 2004 the Association of British Insurers (ABI) issued its second Statement of Best Practice on HIV and Insurance. This prohibited use of the "gay question" (employed by some underwriters in application forms for life insurance to identify heightened risk of infection with HIV), in response to growing criticism that the practice was actuarially unreliable, unfair to gay men, and unnecessary, given the availability of alternative "behaviour-based" risk criteria. While the overhaul of this controversial practice is clearly a victory for gay (male) identity politics, this paper argues that the interests of gay men seem to have dominated at the expense of a more far-reaching critique of the industry's evaluation of infection risk. It contends that a more radical (or "queerer") challenge is needed which can better understand and address the injustices created by criteria for appraising risk of infection that still remain in place.

The decision to exclude agricultural and domestic workers from the 1935 Social Security Act.

The Social Security Act of 1935 excluded from coverage about half the workers in the American economy. Among the excluded groups were agricultural and domestic workers-a large percentage of whom were African Americans. This has led some scholars to conclude that policymakers in 1935 deliberately excluded African Americans from the Social Security system because of prevailing racial biases during that period. This article examines both the logic of this thesis and the available empirical evidence on the origins of the coverage exclusions. The author concludes that the racial-bias thesis is both conceptually flawed and unsupported by the existing empirical evidence. The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers from the early program was due to considerations of administrative feasibility involving tax-collection procedures. The author finds no evidence of any other policy motive involving racial bias.

Can we learn from history? Mental health in health care reform, revisited.

Health reform is again on the national agenda. Serious debate about how mental health might fit into national health policy has not occurred since 1993. The focus of the Clinton reformers was on benefits, integration with the general health system, and a new role for the public sector. A number of issues remain relevant today, such as uncoordinated public and private services, cost-shifting, and poor quality care for people with serious mental illness. This column considers the barriers to full inclusion of mental health in health care reform and proposed solutions that were identified in 1993 and describes how they can inform policy decisions in 2009.