Coverage, Access, and Medicaid

Medicaid, the largest payer for long-term care facilities, covers around 2 in 3 nursing home residents, and reducing dollars to the massive, yet already resource-limited, program could have disastrous effects on older adults’ health, safety and quality of life. Vincent Mor, professor of health services, policy and practice at the Brown University School of Public Health, comments.

Avoidable deaths are rising in the U.S. while they’re decreasing in other high-income nations. It’s a worrisome trend, which is partly responsible for the growing gap in life expectancy between the U.S. and its peers.

Everyone knows that Europeans tend to live longer than Americans. But a new study has a surprising twist: Even the richest Americans only live about as long as the poorest western Europeans.

A project of the RI Life Index, Rhode Island Voices is being launched by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health to amplify the health perspectives of Rhode Island’s diverse communities.

Here’s just the tip of the iceberg: $722.50 for a nurse to push a drug into an IV. $21,500 for ten stitches. The prices charged by hospitals are exorbitant and rising. Private health insurance premiums paid by working age adults are rising rapidly. Many Americans skip necessary medical care, while those who do get treated can end up bankrupt. With U.S. health care spending reaching $4.5 trillion in 2022, finding ways to cut costs has become increasingly urgent.

Every health care model involves people doing their best to balance competing priorities in the face of limited resources. In other words, every system involves tradeoffs.