INTRODUCTION The Government of Gujarat has for the past couple of decades continuously initiated several interventions to improve access to care for pregnant and delivering women within the state. Data from the last District Family Heath survey in Gujarat in 2007-2008 show that 56.4% of women had institutional deliveries and 71.5% had at least one antenatal check-up, indicating that challenges ...

In the immediate postwar era the primary object of health reform among the advanced industrial democracies was to expand, if not universalize, access to a broad spectrum of health services through sustained, high levels of government-mandated spending. The fiscal crises of the 1970s and 1980s ushered in a new generation of policies devoted to balancing the imperatives of guaranteeing access to ...

Title VIII of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 authorizes the expenditure of $1.1 billion to conduct research comparing “clinical outcomes, effectiveness, and appropriateness of items, services, and procedures that are used to prevent, diagnose, or treat diseases, disorders, and other health conditions.” Federal support of “comparative effectiveness” research has been viewed a...

Method: Using comparative analyses of similar evidence for the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco, and amphetamine use, we considered the relation between observational evidence and action on cannabis. We examined arguments on the grounds of public health prudence for discouraging cannabis use by young individuals. With the assumption that the relation may be causal, we considered recommendati...

The New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to transforming health care for the benefit of patients and their families. In partnership with members from all across the health care system, NEHI conducts evidence-based research and stimulates policy change to improve the quality and the value of health care. Together with this unparalleled ...

As policymakers look for savings from the Medicare program, some have proposed eliminating or discouraging "first-dollar coverage" available through privately purchased Medigap policies. Medigap coverage, which beneficiaries obtain to protect themselves from Medicare's cost-sharing requirements and its lack of a cap on out-of-pocket spending, may discourage the judicious use of medical services...