Association of Academic Health Centers
$100,000
Academic Health Leaders' Campaign to Cover the Uninsured
In February 2002, the Association of Academic Health Centers (AHC) launched a mobilization effort called 'Why Not Everyone? It's Time for Action on the Uninsured.' The campaign is intended to make coverage of the uninsured a national priority by enlisting help from academic and other health care leaders to convene, educate, and mobilize their communities. This grant supports a second year of the initiative.

Columbia University
$149,784
Insurance Trends and Policy Options: Analysis and Technical Assistance for the Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance
The Task Force is exploring ways to extend health insurance coverage to uninsured working Americans and their families. This core grant to Columbia University funds analysis of policy options as well as data and technical assistance for Task Force staff and other grantees. Glied and her team will continue to evaluate new state and federal policy options to expand insurance coverage and will prepare several analyses of emerging issues concerning the low-wage workforce and small businesses.

George Washington University
$224,642
Informing State and Federal Debates on Major Health Reform
The Institute of Medicine recently issued a report calling for national support of state demonstrations to develop approaches for achieving universal health insurance coverage. This project will work with several states to craft state or regional initiatives. To inform the policy debate, the project also will assess recent insurance trends that are pertinent to the design of reforms and estimate the number of uninsured who might gain coverage under different approaches.

Georgetown University
$225,000
Addressing the Needs of Chronically Ill People in Private Insurance Markets
This project will seek to: 1) understand how private insurance works for those with chronic illness, many of whom are denied coverage by private insurers and stretched financially from medical expenses; and 2) assess the potential advantages and limitations of proposals intended to make private coverage more accessible and affordable. Multiple sclerosis, which shares many characteristics with other chronic diseases, will be the focus. Working with the project team, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will train its staff to respond more effectively to members' requests for assistance with insurance-related problems.

Harvard School of Public Health
$165,486
Assessing the Impact of Regulation on Individual Health Insurance Markets
This project will examine individual insurance markets in five states to determine how regulations and market structures affect those seeking coverage. The goal will be to provide policymakers, regulators, and advocates with a better understanding of the limitations and potential of state policies to create and maintain effective individual health insurance markets, along with implications for federal policy.

Health Research and Educational Trust
$180,200
Determining How Financial Protection Afforded by Private Insurance Varies Across States and Firm Size
This project will analyze previously unavailable data on the proportion of medical bills expected to be paid by the insurer—i.e., the financial protection provided by the health plan—and explore variations among states and between small and large firms. It also will calculate the change in financial protection provided by benefit plans from 2001 to 2003, as firms continue to shift higher insurance costs to employees.

Iowa Policy Project
$149,990
Examining the Health Insurance Coverage of Temporary and Contract Workers
Little is known about the extent to which firms offer health coverage to their temporary or contract workers, the quality of coverage when it is offered, and restrictions that prevent these workers from participating in company plans. To identify policies that could improve these workers' health coverage, this project will: 1) create a health insurance profile of contingent workers and their dependents; 2) develop a set of health benefit questions for a national survey of workers; and 3) profile the health insurance practices of large companies and industries most likely to rely on temporary labor. The U.S. Department of Labor will cofund the new survey.

National Opinion Research Center
$71,625
2002 Survey of Trends in Employer Health Insurance
With the return of double-digit inflation in health insurance premiums, large and small employers alike are rethinking the level of support and range of health benefits they provide to their employees. To gather new information about the future of health benefits, this project will add health insurance questions to the National Opinion Research Center's 2002 survey of 900 employers. These questions will help assess employers' planned changes to their health coverage in late 2002 and early 2003.

Princeton Survey Research Associates
$250,000
The Commonwealth Fund 2003 Health Insurance Survey
In 1999, 2001, and 2002, Princeton Survey Research Associates conducted national surveys of adults to assess the stability and quality of coverage, financial and nonfinancial barriers to health care, and experiences of people seeking coverage in individual insurance markets. A new survey will update this important trend information while examining emerging areas of research, such as the impact of poor-quality coverage on health, worker productivity, and family finances, as well as consumers' understanding of how defined contribution plans and other new kinds of coverage function.

The National Alliance for Hispanic Health
$150,000
Mobilizing Hispanic Community Leaders for a Hispanic Health Insurance Agenda
The National Alliance for Hispanic Health will seek to mobilize Hispanic community leaders in support of insurance coverage for Hispanics. The Alliance will conduct a workshop aimed at generating agreement on specific ways to tailor any major insurance coverage initiative to the needs of this population and prepare a paper reflecting participants' consensus on an agenda. They will then help leaders take action in at least eight states to publicize the Hispanic health coverage agenda.

The Regents of the University of California
$152,311
Estimating the Effects of Health Insurance on Health Status and Financial Security, Phase Two
In the first phase of this project, researchers collected baseline data on a group of low and middle-income employees of small firms who had been offered subsidized health insurance and on a comparison group of uninsured workers who did not participate. The information they gathered covered health status, access to care, financial burdens from uninsured care, and workforce participation rates. The next phase will assess the impact after one year that having health insurance had on these same outcomes.

AcademyHealth
$20,000
Supporting a panel on the individual insurance market at the 2003 Academy Health Annual Research Meeting

Children's Dental Health Project, Inc.
$14,366
Dental Coverage in Employee Health Plans and its Impact on Workers: Findings from the Commonwealth Fund Health Insurance Surveys

Community Catalyst Foundation
$25,000
The Small Business and Non-Group Health Insurance Project

Employee Benefit Research Institute
$6,000
2003 Health Confidence Survey

Georgetown University
$25,000
Unlicensed Health Plans and Association. Health Plan Insolvencies: A New Crisis

Georgetown University
$25,000
Updating Health Insurance Information on Healthinsuranceinfo.net

Harvard Medical School
$20,000
Harvard Health Policy Forums

Health Research and Educational Trust
$14,918
When Mom and Pop Buy Health Insurance for Their Employees: An Update

Rice University
$3,000
Conference on Cost Effectiveness Analysis and Improvement in Health

University of Texas at Austin
$7,500
The Future of Health Insurance for America's Families Prospectus

Asian American Federation of New York
$99,963
Informing an Initiative to Expand Health Coverage After September 11 in New York City's Chinatown
A $35 million initiative of the September 11 Fund offered unemployed and underemployed workers in Chinatown a choice of either subsidized group health insurance coverage or free medical services at community-based clinics for one year. This project will provide feedback to program managers on the progress of implementation. Interviews with program administrators will explore factors that foster or impede program participation and allow project staff to draw lessons about how to provide health coverage and services in a linguistically and culturally appropriate manner.

Harvard School of Public Health
$92,906
Developing Options for Improving the Healthy New York Program for Small Businesses
Commonwealth/Health Services Improvement Fund Grant
A Fund-supported study of Healthy New York, a state-subsidized health insurance program for small firms and individuals, found that premiums are still unaffordable for most people. This project will evaluate the program's first 18 months of operation and develop options for reprogramming unspent funds to reduce insurance premiums further, make the program more attractive to its target audience, and boost enrollment.

Health Research and Educational Trust
$95,843
Tracking Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in New York State, 2003
Following a 2001 survey of employers, a survey of 600 firms statewide will profile and track trends in employer health benefits and assess the impact of recent initiatives to stabilize or expand this source of coverage. It also will make it possible to compare employer health benefit policies in New York with those in effect throughout the nation.

Lake Snell Perry & Associates, Inc.
$100,800
Making the Transition from Disaster Relief Medicaid to Permanent Health Coverage: Focus Groups with New Yorkers
Disaster Relief Medicaid — a temporary health insurance program implemented after the World Trade Center attack — enrolled about 340,000 New York City residents, but only one-third then made the transition to permanent coverage in public insurance programs. For this project, focus groups held with Disaster Relief Medicaid enrollees, including recent immigrants, will help determine why some are making this transition while others are not. Lessons drawn from this project could help stimulate efforts in New York and elsewhere to streamline public coverage programs for adults and children.

Statewide Youth Advocacy, Inc.
$59,150
Facilitated Enrollment of Adults and Children in New York: A Report from the Field
Commonwealth/Health Services Improvement Fund Grant
This project will examine the impact that outreach to adults has had on an enrollment network originally designed for children. By interviewing enrollment workers and calculating changes in public coverage enrollment rates for children and adults, project staff will gauge the effectiveness of having a single point of access to all of New York's public insurance programs.

Columbia University
$20,000
Social Interactions and Activities of Latino Adult Emergency Department Users in NYC

Fund for the City of New York
$49,693
New York City Community Health Survey: Health Care Access and Insurance Module

Fund for the City of New York
$40,863
New York City Health Disparities Chartbook

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
$50,000
Covering the Uninsured Week - New York City

American Institent of Research
$426,130
The Commonwealth Fund Program on Medicare's Future: Support for Program Direction and Analysis, 2003—04
Through its core grant to American Institutes of Research, the Fund will continue to provide independent, authoritative, real-time analyses of the major Medicare reform options and their potential impact on beneficiaries, particularly on the poor and the sick. Two new areas of focus for work over the next 12 months will be added: the operation of the private supplemental insurance (Medigap) market and the relationship between Medicare and the private sector.

George Washington University
$229,486
Monitoring the Impact of the Medicare+Choice Program on the Elderly, Phase Four
Previous phases of this project have conducted intensive case studies of local Medicare+Choice markets and analyzed national data and policies to assess how the program is faring, describe its shortcomings, and draw lessons for Medicare reform proposals that rely on the Medicare+Choice model of promoting private competition. In this final phase, cities where the program has been relatively stable will be studied and conditions in cities previously studied will be updated to determine if markets are responding to changes in program payments and policies.

Georgetown University
$98,186
"Demography Is Not Destiny" Revisited
This project will update and expand previous Fund-supported work that provided an interdisciplinary analysis of how factors as diverse as the economy, advances in medical technology, housing, transportation, and public policies can affect our ability to meet the needs of an older society. Through close analysis of recent and previously unavailable data, project staff will produce a comprehensive report for policymakers, the media, and researchers that will inform debates concerning the federal budget, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and employer-based programs.

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
$232,154
Medicare Managed Care: Trends in Benefits and Premiums, 2003—04
Mathematica Policy Research has been tracking trends in Medicare+Choice benefits and premiums since the program's inception. This project will continue Mathematica's analysis of these trends for the 2003 and 2004 enrollment years — a critical period that might determine the future of the program and provide lessons for a broader restructuring of Medicare.

Medicare Rights Center, Inc.
$150,338
Administrative Changes to Improve Medicare: Addressing Beneficiary Concerns
For this project, the Medicare Rights Center will tap into its consumer hotline and those of similar organizations nationwide to obtain firsthand information about the most critical operational problems confronting beneficiaries today. With the help of a national advisory board, the Center will select five to 10 of the most significant problems, document their impact on beneficiaries, recommend administrative methods to ameliorate them, and work with Medicare officials and others to implement the reforms.

New England Medical Center Hospitals, Inc.
$309,655
National and State Surveys of Prescription Drug Coverage and Costs Among Medicare Beneficiaries
This project will support two annual surveys of seniors in all 50 states to generate up-to-date national and state-specific information on prescription drug coverage, use, and costs among the elderly. Results will inform ongoing policy debates by capturing current trends such as the declining availability and affordability of supplemental drug coverage and the steep rise in pharmaceutical costs. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation will cofund the project.

The National Council on the Aging, Inc.
$250,000
BenefitsCheckUp: Helping Low-Income Seniors Receive Health and Other Benefits, Phase Two
BenefitsCheckUp is an Internet service that enables low-income seniors to assess their eligibility for public benefits programs. Last year, the National Council on the Aging launched eight local demonstrations to marry this promising technology with one-on-one assistance from community-based organizations. In the next year, Fund support will allow for the continued operation of the demonstration sites as well as an independent evaluation to determine whether more effective screening is helping a greater number of seniors apply for and receive health benefits. Cofunding will be provided by the U.S. Department of Commerce and numerous foundations around the country.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
$25,000
Language Barriers for Seniors in Medicare

Georgetown University
$23,466
Public Benefit Programs for the Elderly: Should Asset Tests be Used? Repeated? Documented?

New England Medical Center Hospitals, Inc.
$16,000
Health and Health Care Experiences Among Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries in 50 States