Health Affairs ’ August Issue: Disparities, Hospital Financing, And More

The August issue of Health Affairs, a variety issue, includes a collection of articles that show the extent of health disparities in the United States and describe approaches designed to address them. There are also articles covering hospital financing, Medicare, and other topics. Documenting active life expectancy disparities: black and white differences remain Research previously published, in Health Affairs and elsewhere, has described racial differences in life expectancies. However, very few studies have focused on long-term trends in active life expectancy by race. Vicki Freedman of the University of Michigan and Brenda Spillman of the Urban Institute looked at data from the 1982 and 2004 National Long Term Care Surveys and the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study to compare black and white racial differences in postponing disability. According to the authors, while life expectancy has risen for both groups, whites can expect to live disability-free for three-quarters of the remaining years of their lives, compared to two-thirds of remaining years for blacks. The authors note that the black-white gaps persisted largely because of the lack of progress for older black women in gaining years of active life. Their findings suggest that research pinpointing which measures reduce disparities in dependence is needed to address pressures on the long-term care delivery system as a result of population aging. DATAWATCH: Geographic concentration of US home-based medical c...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Disparities Health Affairs journal Medicare Advantage Source Type: blogs