After a period of relatively low health care inflation during the 1990s, health care costs increased sharply in 1999 and 2000, and similarly high increases are estimated for 2001. The news for employers providing health insurance and their employees is worse: data indicate that increases in insurance premiums exceed the increases in the cost of care. Finally, whereas employers might have absorb...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this work was to determine whether children with special health care needs in New Jersey's State Children's Health Insurance Program are less likely to become uninsured than children without special health care needs. PATIENTS AND METHODS We used the 2003 New Jersey FamilyCare Supplement to the New Jersey Family Health Survey. Children were randomly selected from the ...

In 1935, when medical societies across the United States were complaining that the Milbank Memorial Fund endorsed health insurance mandated and subsidized by government, Albert G. Milbank, president of its board, accorded priority to protecting the Fund’s “reputation and its personality” (Kingsbury 1935a). This article, on the occasion of the Fund’s centennial, describes how its personality, ex...

None of the health care reform bills introduced during the last session of Congress would have ended the deepening Medicare fiscal crisis. Delays in resolving Medicare’s fiscal problems will increase generational inequities and cause disruptions in health care delivery. Because of the pressures of increasing health care costs on government, business, and individuals, comprehensive health care r...

background the major objective of the national health insurance scheme (nhis) in nigeria is to protect families from the financial hardship of large medical bills. catastrophic health expenditure (che) is rampart in nigeria despite the take-off of the nhis. this study aimed to determine if households enrolled in the nhis were protected from having che.   methods the study took place among 714 h...

STUDY DESIGN A prospective questionnaire. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate factors that patients consider when selecting a spine surgeon. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA The rise in consumer-driven health insurance plans has increased the role of patients in provider selection. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that may influence a patient's criteria for selecting a...

Medical systems in the USA such as EBM., DRG., Informed Consent and Second Opinion have already been introduced into the Japanese medical system. However, some of these systems have met resistance from a part of the population due to the differences of social structures, morals and customs between the two countries. Briefly, I described the medical education and licensure, the private practice ...