A survey of health insurance in Pennsylvania found that more than 1 million Pennsylvanians, mostly employed adults, lack health insurance (Philadelphia Inquirer).

The 2008 Health Insurance Survey research report and county statistics, as well as the 2004 survey results, are available online from the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

More than half of Americans with chronic conditions skip medication or doctor appointments because of costs, according to a new survey by The Commonwealth Fund (New York Times).

Citation: Schoen, C., Osborn, R., How, S. K., Doty, M. M., and Peugh, J. (2008). In chronic condition: Experiences of patients with complex health care needs, in eight countries, 2008. Health Affairs.

Results from the 2007 Latino Health Survey conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center are available in a new report, Hispanics and Health Care in the United States: Access, Information and Knowledge.

PRI’s NHANES holdings are now current through May 2008. All updates and new files have been downloaded. PRI Researchers using this data are encouraged to look at SodaPop, PRI’s Data Archive for updated holdings.

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund finds that performance indicators for child health care systems vary widely across states, with Iowa and Vermont emerging at the top. The report, U.S. Variations in Child Health System Performance: A State Scorecard, is available for download from the Commonwealth Fund’s Web site, along with an interactive map.

Cancer patients without health insurance are more likely to die, according to a new study forthcoming in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (AP).

A new report from the Commonwealth Fund makes policy recommendations for reducing health care costs (Bending the Curve: Options for Achieving Savings and Improving Value in U.S. Health Spending).

42.5 million adults lacked health insurance during the first half of 2007, according to estimates from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The PRI Library has received an announcement from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the National Congress on the Un and Under Insured.

John Nyman questions the conclusions of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, conducted in the 1970’s, in an article appearing in the October issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Citations:

David Glenn (2007, Nov. 9). The case of the health-insurance dropouts. Chronicle of Higher Education. (The Chronicle article is available online to subscribers. PRI affiliates can read the Chronicle in the PRI Library or request online access from library@pop.psu.edu.)

John A. Nyman (2007). American health policy: Cracks in the foundation. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law 32(5): 759-783. (Available online to the Penn State community)