Care Without Coverage Too Little, Too Late (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 17-24
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 17... ...
Finally, the Committee applies its findings from this review to reach conclusions about the likely impact that health insurance would have on the health of uninsured adults. A critical question for public policy concerning health insurance coverage and the financing of health care more generally is whether health insurance improves personal health outcomes.
|
From page 18... ...
Most of us take for granted that medical services improve our health by relieving pain, reducing functional impairments, curing disease, treating chronic conditions, and making available preventive measures that help us avoid becoming sick or that detect disease at early and readily treatable stages. Even if medical care were not effective in achieving all of these goals, contact with a physician or another health care provider when we are ill or injured, in pain, or not able to function well in everyday life may comfort and reassure us.
|
From page 19... ...
Last, this report considers only health-related outcomes associated with health insurance status. It does not address the financial impacts on individuals and families of having or lacking coverage, impacts on health care providers and institutions, or societal economic costs.
|
From page 20... ...
Studies evaluating health insurance status effects most commonly classify VA health care as a separate category or exclude it in recognition of its unique features. Some studies include persons served by VA facilities as publicly insured.
|
From page 21... ...
As discussed in the following section, the Committee has focused its evaluation of the evidence about health insurance on those studies that have used explicit criteria for the appropriate use of health care services. A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF HEALTH INSURANCE STATUS Measuring the unique, or independent, effect of having or lacking health insurance is difficult at best, because investigations of this question are not conducted as randomized, controlled experiments, as are studies of the effect of a drug at a given dosage.
|
From page 22... ...
The conceptual framework introduced in the Committee's previous report is adapted here to highlight and explicate the mechanisms by which health insurance influences the kind of health care received and health outcomes. Appendix A presents the Committee's general conceptual framework that was introduced in Coverage Matters (IOM, 2001a)
|
From page 23... ...
diagnosis of disease for specific conditions Community Level • Patient-provider communication • Quality, • General and Resources (e.g., health intensity, and disease-specific insurance coverage rates, site of care mortality safety net services) Characteristics Needs Effects on Communities: Health Disparities FIGURE 1.1 A conceptual framework for assessing the effect of health insurance status on health-related outcomes for adults.
|
From page 24... ...
Chapter 2 outlines the report's analytic design and methods. First, it details the Committee's conceptualization of how health insurance status affects access to health care services, which in turn affects health outcomes.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.