Editorial Material
Medicine, General & Internal
Abbe R. Gluck, Lawrence O. Gostin
Summary: This Viewpoint discusses the recent decision made by a federal district court, which undermines the Affordable Care Act's requirement of providing cost-free coverage for preventive services. This includes contraception, certain vaccinations, various screenings, and preexposure prophylaxis for HIV, among others.
JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
(2023)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Alexandra E. Makhoul, Jeremy B. Hatcher, Lina Sulieman, Darren Johnson, David M. Anderson
Summary: The Affordable Care Act required coverage of free preventive services with zero patient cost sharing, but patients can still face high same-day costs when accessing these services. A study of individual-market health plans from 2016-18 found that 21-61% of enrollees experienced same-day cost exposure greater than $0 when accessing ACA-mandated free preventive services.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Debra P. Ritzwoller, Rafael Meza, Nikki M. Carroll, Erica Blum-Barnett, Andrea N. Burnett-Hartman, Robert T. Greenlee, Stacey A. Honda, Christine Neslund-Dudas, Katharine A. Rendle, Anil Vachani
Summary: The study analyzed data from 5 community-based health care systems to estimate the population-level changes associated with the 2021 USPSTF expansion of lung cancer screening eligibility. The results suggest that the new criteria will increase access to screening for more women, racial and ethnic minority groups, and individuals with lower SES.
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Jordan C. Gemelas
Summary: The study investigated trends in primary care physician supply in US counties with respect to the Index of Relative Rurality (IRR) and time since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed. Results showed that both IRR and year were inversely associated with the ratio of primary care physicians per 100,000 population and annual growth in physician ratio.
JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Emily C. Dore, Surbhi Shrivastava, Patricia Homan
Summary: Preventive health care use is important for reducing the risk of disease, disability, and death. This study examines the relationship between structural sexism and preventive care use, finding that in states with more structural sexism, both men and women are less likely to seek preventive care. These findings support the gender performance hypothesis for men and the gendered power and resource allocation hypothesis for men and women.
JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
(2023)
Article
Health Policy & Services
Mark Olfson, Melanie M. Wall, Colleen L. Barry, Christine Mauro, C. Jean Choi, Ramin Mojtabai
Summary: The study assessed changes in health care coverage for low- and middle-income adults with and without substance use disorders following the implementation of the 2014 Affordable Care Act. The results showed improvements in Medicaid and individually purchased private insurance for both groups, but recent insurance gains have been affected by the economic downturn.
PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Nav Persaud, Areesha Sabir, Hannah Woods, Ambreen Sayani, Arnav Agarwal, Muna Chowdhury, Kathleen de Leon-Demare, Somtochukwu Ibezi, Saadia Hameed Jan, Alan Katz, Frantz-Daniel Lafortune, Melanie Lewis, Trudy Mcfarlane, Anjali Oberai, Yinka Oladele, Onyema Onyekwelu, Lisa Peters, Patrick Wong, Aisha Lofters
Summary: This study aimed to address health disparities by prioritizing effective interventions for people experiencing disadvantages and provide corresponding preventive care recommendations. The recommendations include screening for colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease risk, and implementing interventions such as HPV self-testing, HIV self-testing, and interferon-gamma release assays. The study also suggests automatically connecting people experiencing disadvantages to primary care.
CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Michael A. Preston, Levi Ross, Askar Chukmaitov, Sharla A. Smith, Michelle L. Odlum, Bassam Dahman, Vanessa B. Sheppard
Summary: The study examined the impact of variations in health insurance mandates on colorectal cancer screening post ACA era, finding that health insurance mandates increased the likelihood of up-to-date screenings by 2.8% points, potentially leading to an estimated 2.37 million additional screenings. These findings highlight the effectiveness of health insurance mandates in increasing access to preventive health services.
CANCER PREVENTION RESEARCH
(2021)
Review
Medicine, General & Internal
Jennifer S. Lin, Lynn Hoffman, Sarah Bean, Elizabeth A. O'Connor, Allea M. Martin, Megan O. Iacocca, Olivia P. Bacon, Melinda C. Davies
Summary: Race is not biologically based but has biological consequences through racism. Racism is complex and pervasive, operating at multiple levels and affecting other social determinants and health through various pathways. Organizations have issued statements on racism in healthcare, but few provide substantive guidance on operational steps to address its effects.
JAMA-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
(2021)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Patrick N. O'Mahen, Laura A. Petersen
Summary: Health care reform has become a major issue in the 2020 election, with Democrats considering Medicare for All and extending the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans lean towards proposals to eliminate much of the ACA and cut Medicaid. The potential disruption that reform proposals may create for the current state role in health care has not been thoroughly addressed.
JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Yuyi Li, Mohammad Usama Toseef, Gail A. Jensen, Kasim Ortiz, Hector M. Gonzalez, Wassim Tarraf
Summary: The study revealed that gaining health insurance led to significant improvements in immigrants' utilization of recommended preventive services, although disparities still exist compared to continuously insured US-born adults.
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Adeline Lo, Hector Pifarre Arolas, Jonathan Renshon, Siyu Liang
Summary: The racial inequities observed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. have changed over time. The decrease in inequality seems to be driven by increasing deaths among white Americans rather than decreasing mortality among black Americans. Containment policies are associated with a reduction in inequality, possibly due to lower relative mortality among Blacks.
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Xiaohui Liu, Mark N. Fluchel, Anne C. Kirchhoff, Haojie Zhu, Tracy Onega
Summary: This study examined the geographic accessibility of pediatric cancer care in the continental US and identified disparities among different population groups and areas. It suggests innovative approaches, such as capacity expansion of local facilities and partnerships with adult oncology centers and primary care physicians, to reduce these disparities.
Editorial Material
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
David A. Katzka
Summary: Disparities in medical treatment due to race, gender, and creed are a widespread issue that requires diverse perspectives for improvement in patient care. This editorial examines a recent article that investigates disparities in adherence to quality indicators among Barrett's esophagus patients using the GI Quality Improving Consortium.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY
(2021)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Tara McKay, Nathaniel M. Tran, Harry Barbee, Judy K. Min
Summary: This study examines whether access to an affirming provider improves health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer populations across a range of preventive health and chronic disease management outcomes. The results show that having an affirming provider is associated with greater uptake of preventive health screenings and improved management of mental health conditions.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
(2023)