Massachusetts enacted a comprehensive health care reform bill in 2006 that has moved the state to near-universal health insurance coverage. Although estimates to date have focused on the overall effect of the Massachusetts health reform package there is substantial policy interest in determining the effects of the different components of the reform effort. In this paper, we focus on disentangling the effects of the special provisions implemented in Massachusetts to expand coverage to young adults.

Download a PDF of the brief. 

Presentation by Lynn Blewett at the National Center for Health Statistics conference in Washington, DC, August 17 2010.

This issue brief details the collaborative effort between Iowa's Department of Revenue and Department of Human Services to use tax information to reach out to uninsured children who are potentially eligible for the state’s CHIP (“hawk-i”) and Medicaid programs. The brief offers several lessons learned from Iowa's experience, including the importance of establishing inter-agency data-sharing agreements, ensuring that tax form questions about health insurance are as clear as possible, notifying professional tax preparers of changes to the tax form, and creating an automated mechanism to track outreach efforts.

This brief is authored by Brenda Freshour-Johnston, Outreach Coordinator at Iowa Department of Human Services, and draws upon the content of her presentation from SHARE’s February 24, 2010, webinar, “Using Income Tax Information to Target Medicaid and CHIP Outreach.”  Click here to watch a recording of the webinar or to download a podcast of the event.

Presentation by Joanna Turner and Brett O'Hara (US Census Bureau) at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Vancouver, British Columbia, August 4 2010.

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NEWS RELEASE -- FOR IMMEDIATE USE
August 17, 2010    
Contact: Karen Soderberg, 612-625-5062

LEADING HEALTH POLICY RESEARCHER JOINS TEAM OF STATE HEALTH ACCESS DATA ASSISTANCE CENTER
Sharon Long Joins SHADAC, Releases New Reports on Effectiveness of Young Adult Provisions in Massachusetts’ Health Reform

The State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) is pleased to announce the addition of Sharon K. Long Ph.D. to its team. With more than 25 years of experience conducting quantitative and qualitative policy research, Long arrives from the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., where she was a senior fellow in the Health Policy Center. While at Urban, Long focused on a range of health policy issues in areas such as Medicaid, managed care, access to care, state health policy and health reform - in particular, gaining national attention for her research into Massachusetts’ health reform program.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and housed within the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, SHADAC works to bridge the gap between health insurance data and the policy-making process. Long joins SHADAC as a senior economist and a professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

"We are over the moon about having Sharon on board," said Lynn Blewett, Ph.D., principal investigator and director at SHADAC, and professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. "She is a talented, well-regarded researcher and author, and her expertise will be instrumental in our continued work to bridge the gap between research and health policy."

The State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE), which operates out of SHADAC, and the Urban Institute released two new reports today by lead author Sharon Long, focusing on the demographics of uninsured populations in Massachusetts, and the importance of implementing young adult provisions in Massachusetts’ health reform.

• Read "Massachusetts Health Reform in 2008: Who are the Remaining Uninsured Adults?"
• Read "The Importance of Young Adult Provisions in Massachusetts’ Health Reform"

Long holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For more information on SHADAC, visit www.shadac.org.