May 17, 2012 - A new analysis of the Commonwealth Fund 2010 Biennial Health Insurance Survey demonstrates that when low-income adults have both health insurance and a medical home, they are less likely to report cost-related access problems, more likely to be up-to-date with preventive screenings, and report greater satisfaction with the quality of their care.
For more information, see the issue brief, "Achieving Better Quality of Care for Low-Income Populations: The Roles of Health Insurance and the Medical Home in Reducing Health Inequities."
May 3, 2012 - This Commonwealth Fund analysis of 13 industrialized countries finds the U.S. spends far more on health care than any other country. However this high spending cannot be attributed to higher income, an older population, or greater supply or utilization of hospitals and doctors. Instead, the findings suggest the higher spending is more likely due to higher prices and perhaps more readily accessible technology and greater obesity.
For more information, see the issue brief, "Explaining High Health Care Spending in the United States: An International Comparison of Supply, Utilization, Prices, and Quality."
April 26, 2012 - The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System believes the federal government needs a comprehensive, disciplined implementation plan that takes full advantage of the new opportunities provided by the Affordable Care Act, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act. The Commission identifes some general principles to help guide this strategic plan.
For more information, see the report, "The Performance Improvement Imperative: Utilizing a Coordinated, Community-Based Approach to Enhance Care and Lower Costs for Chronically Ill Patients."
April 19, 2012 - One-quarter of adults ages 19 to 64 experienced a gap in their health insurance in 2011, with a majority remaining uninsured for one year or more, according to the The Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Tracking Survey of U.S. Adults.
For more information, see the issue brief, "Gaps in Health Insurance: Why So Many Americans Experience Breaks in Coverage and How the Affordable Care Act Will Help."
March 14, 2012 - Health care access, cost, quality, and outcomes can vary greatly from one community to the next—both within states and across states—depending on the performance of the health care system available to residents, according to the first-ever local health system scorecard.
For more information, see the report, "Rising to the Challenge: Results from a Scorecard on Local Health System Performance, 2012."
February 21, 2012 - Adults in low- and moderate-income families are more likely to be uninsured, to lack a regular source of health care, and to struggle to get the health care they need compared to those in higher-income families, according to this new Commonwealth Fund survey.
For more information, see the issue brief, The Income Divide in Health Care: How the Affordable Care Act Will Help Restore Fairness to the U.S. Health System.
January 27, 2012 - An international survey of adults living with health problems and complex care needs found that patients in the United States are much more likely than those in 10 other high-income countries to forgo needed care because of costs and to struggle with medical debt. In all the countries surveyed, patients who have a medical home reported better coordination of care, fewer medical errors, and greater satisfaction with care than those without one.
For more information, see our summary of the Health Affairs article, New 2011 Survey of Patients with Complex Care Needs in Eleven Countries Finds That Care Is Often Poorly Coordinated.
January 23, 2012 - Health care spending in 2009 and 2010 grew at the slowest rates in 50 years. This startling news was largely attributed to the shrinking economy. In a new blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis suggests that lower longer-term projections point to a shift in the health system.
For more information, see the Fund blog, Bending the Health Care Cost Curve: New Era in American Health Care?
January 23, 2012 - The charts accompanying the blog post by the Fund's Sara Collins and Tracy Garber provide a picture, as of May 2012, of where states stand in establishing the legal authority for their insurance exchanges.
For more information, see the Fund blog, State Health Insurance Exchange Legislation: A Progress Report.
January 9, 2012 - International comparisons of health care systems offer valuable tools to health ministers, policymakers, and academics wishing to evaluate the performance of their country's system. In this chartbook, we use data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to compare health care systems and performance on a range of topics, including spending, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, prevention, mortality, quality of care, and prices.
For more information see Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2011.
November 28, 2011 - For more information see, Ensuring Equity: A Post-Reform Framework to Achieve High Performance Health Care for Vulnerable Populations.
November 16, 2011 - For more information, see "State Trends in Premiums and Deductibles, 2003-2010: The Need for Action to Address Rising Costs".
November 4, 2011 - For more information, see "Testimony: Premium Tax Credits Under the Affordable Care Act: How Will They Help Millions of Uninsured Americans Gain Affordable, Comprehensive Health Insurance".
October 20, 2011 - For more information, see "Why Not the Best? Results from the National Scorecard on U.S. Health System Performance, 2011"
October 7, 2011 - For more information, see "Low-Quality, High-Cost Hospitals, Mainly in the South, Care for Sharply Higher Shares of Elderly Black, Hispanic, and Medicaid Patients".