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Quarterly Department
Quarterly Article
April 2025 Mark Schlesinger, Deepon Bhaumik,
Context: Health insurance reform in the United States has focused on expanding enrollment, a goal inhibited by complex insurance provisions. Research… More
April 2025 Jane M. Zhu, Ruth Rowland, Inga Suneson, Deborah J. Cohen, K. John McConnell, Daniel Polsky,
Behavioral health access gaps are well documented in Medicaid, in which managed care now covers most enrollees, and for which there are typically fewer options for going out-of-network for care. Despite the growing role of managed care organizations (MCOs) in financing and delivering behavioral health services, little is known about MCO levers that can improve access to care. More
April 2025 Constanza Hurtado-Acuna, Michael S. Rendall,
Context: The 2015 to 2020 Delaware Contraceptive Access Now (DelCAN) initiative was motivated by Delaware’s having among the highest rates of… More
April 2025 Molly Knowles, Aditi Vasan, Ziwei Pan, Judith A. Long, Shreya Kangovi,
Context: Community health worker (CHW) programs represent a key strategy for addressing social and structural drivers of health and have the… More
April 2025 Luke E. Barry, Sanjay Basu, May Wang, Roch A. Nianogo,
Context: Evidence suggests Medicaid expansion has improved cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes, especially among those of lower socioeconomic… More
February 2025 Kristina Jenei,
The World Health Organization (WHO) Model Lists of Essential Medicines (EML) aims to help countries select medicines based on the priority needs of their populations. However, rapid evolution within the pharmaceutical sector toward complex, high-priced medicines has challenged WHO decision making, leading to inconsistent decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how political factors impact the WHO EML. More
February 2025 Kamaria Kaalund, Jay A. Pearson, Andrea Thoumi,
Language specificity in research, advocacy, and writing is an important tool to ensure more equitable health policies. All health policy practitioners working at the intersection of health care, health policy, and health equity have a role in upholding ethical standards that promote the use of humanizing, inclusive, and antisupremacist language. More
January 2025 Rena M. Conti, Patrick DeMartino, Jonathan Gruber, Andrew W. Lo, Yutong Sun, Jackie Wu,
Cell and gene therapies (CGTs) offer treatment to rare and oftentimes deadly diseases. Because of their high price and uncertain clinical outcomes, US insurers commonly restrain patient access to CGTs, and these barriers may create or perpetuate existing disparities. A reconsideration of existing insurance policies to improve access and reduce disparities is currently underway. More
January 2025 Stephanie B. Gold, Allison Costello, Maura Gissen, Selin Odman, Larry A. Green, Kurt C. Stange, Réna Swann, Rebecca S. Etz,
To provide a foundation for assessing whole person health and support further instrument development, this review summarizes past work on assessing person-reported whole health, articulates conceptual domains encompassing whole health, and identifies lessons from existing instruments, including considerations for administration. More
January 2025 Jake Haselswerdt,
Mental health problems represent a major public health issue for the United States, and access to mental health treatment is both inadequate and unevenly distributed. There is a strong justification for government action on mental health treatment, but it is unclear whether there is a political constituency for such action. Existing work suggests that stigma and othering of people with mental illnesses contributes to reduced support for intervention. I expand on the existing literature by focusing on mental health as an issue that may apply to Americans’ own lives rather than only to a stigmatized outgroup. More
