Universal Health Insurance and the Adequacy and Efficiency of Health Care

描述（由申请人提供）：全民健康保险和医疗保健的效率和效率本项目将使用65岁以下和65岁以上的人之间的比较来衡量65岁以上的人几乎全民健康保险的可用性如何影响初级保健与急诊服务的使用;医院外提供的卫生保健服务的质量，以及因急性心肌梗死入院的患者的治疗强度和健康结果。该项目的结果将直接与政策相关，因为它们将有助于量化保险覆盖范围（或缺乏覆盖范围）对老年人医疗保健提供系统的效率和功效的影响。它们还将为评估将医疗保险覆盖范围扩大到以前未覆盖的个人的成本提供有价值的信息。这些发现还将为不同患者群体之间急性心肌梗死患者的治疗差异以及这些差异如何影响这些群体的健康提供新的见解。 公共卫生相关性：这个项目将使用65岁以上的人进行比较（几乎所有人都在医疗保险的覆盖范围内）和65岁以下的人（其中许多人缺乏足够的医疗保险），以了解医疗保险的可用性如何影响使用急诊科进行非紧急护理，住院率为“可预防”的原因，以及向因心脏病发作入院的患者提供的治疗类型。这些比较将有助于我们更好地了解扩大医疗保险覆盖范围的潜在好处和成本。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Universal Health Insurance and the Adequacy and Efficiency of Health Care This project will use comparisons between people just under and just over age 65 to measure how the availability of nearly universal health insurance for those over 65 affects the use of primary care versus Emergency Department services; the quality of health care services provided outside the hospital, and the treatment intensity and health outcomes of people admitted to the hospital for acute myocardial infarction. The results from this project will be directly policy-relevant as they will help to quantify the effects of insurance coverage (or lack of coverage) on the efficiency and efficacy of the health care delivery system for older adults. They will also provide valuable information for evaluating the costs of extending health insurance coverage to previously uncovered individuals. The findings will also provide new insights into the disparities in treatment of acute myocardial infarction patients across different patient groups, and how these disparities affect the health of these groups. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will use comparisons between people just over age 65 (nearly all of whom are covered by Medicare) and those just under age 65 (many of whom lack adequate health insurance) to learn how the availability of health insurance affects the use of Emergency Departments for non-urgent care, the rate of hospitalization for "preventable" causes, and the types of treatments provided to hospital patients admitted for heart attacks. These comparisons will help us to better understand the potential benefits and costs of expanding health insurance coverage.