Archive for January 2016
A little perspective — health care is expensive, but less than housing or transportation
In 2013 Americans of all ages devoted more of total household spending to housing and transportation than health care, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For most age groups that year, health care spending was also behind food and pensions/Social Security. Spending on health care peaked for ages 65 to 74 at $5,188/person; children spent…
Read MoreMedicaid still saving $ hundreds of millions
Four years after shifting from managed care organizations to a care-management focused program, CT’s Medicaid program continues providing significant relief to the tight state budget. At today’s Medicaid Council meeting we learned that per person spending was down 5.9% from FY 2014 to 2015, saving the state $360 million just last year compared to no…
Read MoreJanuary web quiz: CT’s health system performance
Test your knowledge about the performance of CT health system. Take the January CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreOnly 15% of CT Medicaid smokers are getting medications to help quit
An article in this month’s Health Affairs estimates that only 15% of CT’s 102,000 Medicaid adults who smoke are getting medications to help them quit. While this is better than the 10% US average, there is a lot of room to improve. 31% of adults in our state’s Medicaid program smoke, about twice the rate…
Read MoreCT teen birthrate down 11% last year
New data on births rates from the CDC finds that last year, as in 2013, CT had the third lowest teen birth rate among states. In both 2013 and 2014, MA and NH had the lowest and second lowest teen birth rates, respectively, across all states. CT’s 2014 teen birth rate dropped by 10.9% from…
Read MoreCT health reform progress meter not changed much
This month’s CT health reform progress meter ticked down very slightly this month, continuing its hover around the same 25% mark. Medicaid redesign planning is still on track, working collaboratively with all voices at the table. More Medicaid quality data confirms the program’s improvements including exciting news on health equity for high-cost, high-need members. However…
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