How Health Insurance Premiums Are Eating Up Middle-Class Incomes--and How National Reform Can Help

Nationally, family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance increased 119 percent between 1999 and 2008, and they could increase another 94 percent to an average $23,842 per family by 2020 if the current pace of cost growth continues, according to new Commonwealth Fund analysis. The data brief finds that national reforms that slow health care cost increases by 1 to 1.5 percent per year would yield substantial savings for families and businesses across the country. In a new Commonwealth Fund Blog post, Fund President Karen Davis underscores the need for health reform legislation to lower premiums for employers and families by including a public plan or another effective option for controlling both medical outlays and insurance administrative overhead. Read more »

New Case Studies of Organized Delivery Systems

The Commonwealth Fund's continuing case study series on high-performing organized health care delivery systems in the U.S. turns to the Midwest. Read all about:

• Gundersen Lutheran Health System, a physician-led integrated system serving Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota that has increased efficiency, improved patient care, and achieved the high performance associated with large urban institutions.
• Henry Ford Health System, an integrated system in southeastern Michigan in which leaders stress collaboration, care coordination, and innovation and learning. 
• Marshfield Clinic, a physician-governed multispecialty group practice in rural Wisconsin that has engaged physicians and staff in a program of clinical performance improvement aimed at enhancing patient access, coordination of care, and efficiency of clinical operations.
• Mayo Clinic, the world's oldest and largest integrated multispecialty group medical practice, with a flagship campus based in Rochester, Minnesota, and a regional health system serving Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
  

Paying Medicare Advantage Plans by Competitive Bidding: How Much Competition Is There?

In 2009 alone, private health plans that enroll Medicare beneficiaries—known as Medicare Advantage (MA) plans—are being paid $11 billion more than it would cost to cover these beneficiaries in regular fee-for-service Medicare. To generate Medicare savings for offsetting the costs of health reform, the Obama Administration has proposed eliminating these extra payments to private insurers and instituting a competitive bidding system that pays these plans based on the bids they submit. This new Commonwealth Fund study questions the degree to which firms offering MA plans actually face competition in their local markets. Read more »

North Carolina's ABCD Program: Using Community Care Networks to Improve the Delivery of Childhood Developmental Screening and Referral to Early Intervention Services

North Carolina's Assuring Better Child Health and Development program has quintupled the number of screening tests administered during Medicaid well-child visits to identify young children at risk for developmental disabilities and delays. This Commonwealth Fund issue brief examines the key elements of this program that have resulted in fewer children entering school with unrecognized or untreated developmental problems. Read more »

Understanding the Safety Net: Inpatient Quality of Care Varies Based on How One Defines Safety-Net Hospitals

This Commonwealth Fund-supported study, published in Medical Care Research and Review, finds that the quality of care at safety-net hospitals—which serve many poor, publicly insured, and uninsured patients—varies depending on the criteria used to identify such hospitals. Read more »

Neil Calman Awarded Kanter Prize

Commonwealth Fund grantee Neil Calman, M.D., president and CEO of New York's Institute for Family Health, was awarded $25,000 for the prestigious Kanter Prize from the Health Legacy Partnership (HELP). Dr. Calman was selected for his dedication to improving the quality of primary care services delivered to medically underserved communities and his commitment to the elimination of racial disparities in health care delivery and health outcomes. Read more »

Web Site Page Redesign

Newly redesigned pages on commonwealthfund.org make it easier for you to e-mail or share a publication through sites like Facebook. You can also save pages to your My Commonwealth Fund library or join the health policy conversation on the Fund’s Web site by submitting your comments. Read more »