Next steps in this research must further disentangle the different aspects of the NCMS rules and reforms (breadth of coverage, depth of coverage, etc)., to figure out which particular provisions are most crucial to the progressive nature of the policy.
The data from the National Health Services Surveys (NHSS) in 1998 and 2003 will be used to explore the impact of the reform on coverage.
He said he had reasoned that unlike limiting reform to coverage of the uninsured, who make up about 7percentt of the state's population, a focus on cost control would appeal to every Pennsylvanian who visits a doctor or pays a premium.
The reform of individual coverage, for political reasons, is built on subsides for the purchase of private insurance policies, which is expensive, complicated, and, often, frustrating.
"There is wide agreement on the two elements of the legislation that the public cares about most: insurance market reforms and the expansion of coverage, with subsidies," said Drew E. Altman, the president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which focuses on health policy.
Second, the proposed health care reform links the expansion of coverage to serious cost-control measures for Medicare.
A few illustrative examples of HSS objectives may include: strengthening the capacity of the service delivery system for effective scale-up of coverage, reforming the health financing system to increase equitable access to care, developing the health information system to enhance disease surveillance, etc.
WHAT THE MARKET NEEDS While the individual mandate may not be popular in opinion polls, health insurance reforms, like coverage of pre-existing conditions, are exceedingly popular.
By coupling the expansion of coverage with reforms that significantly slow the growth of health-care costs, we can dramatically improve the long-run fiscal situation without tightening prematurely.As someone who has written somewhat critically of the short-sightedness of policymakers in the late 1930s, I feel new humility.
"In short, the vast majority of those potentially subject to the individual mandate have coverage today and will not obtain a different type of coverage post-reform," the study concluded.
