Rules for medical markets: the impact of Medicare contractors on coverage policies.
Organizational theorists have long called attention to the ubiquity of rules. Weber, for example, identified rules as a cornerstone of bureaucracies (Weber 1978). Rules are an efficient means of guiding behavior, either by providing actors a template for behavior in a given situation or knowledge of the consequences of...

Fake car insurance.
Byline: Elinando B Cinco DAVID Comandante was driving his jeep along Bonifacio St. in Caloocan City when he hit a 9-year-old boy who had suddenly darted in front of his vehicle. Unfortunately, the tyke died in a hospital, and when it was time for David...

Commentary--improving federal health data: the essential partnership between researcher and policy maker.
The two papers by Blewett and Davern (2006) and Kenney, Holahan, and Nichols (2006) in the special section of this issue discuss the collection of large representative samples to monitor health, health care, and coverage of the population from the perspective of health policy researchers whose primary focus is...

Sanipac workers ratify new contract.
Byline: Jim Murez The Register-Guard CORRECTION (ran 8/13/2005): Union members of Sanipac had been paying $272 monthly for health care insurance. The amount was incorrect in a Friday story on Page C3 about the union's vote to ratify a four-year contract with Sanipac. Members of...

Will health savings accounts leave people vulnerable to bankruptcy?
YES When we studied more than 900 people who had filed for personal bankruptcy, more than half cited medical causes (Health Aff. [Millwood] Feb. 2, 2005; [Web exclusive]). This was true even though three-quarters of the debtors had health insurance at the onset of their illness. Of...

No child uninsured.
Byline: The Register-Guard It sounds too good to be true. A bipartisan team of lawmakers has unveiled a plan that would provide every child in Oregon with health insurance. That's worth repeating: Every child in Oregon - more than 100,000 currently uninsured children in all - would...

Insuring equality.
Byline: The Register-Guard The Oregon House of Representatives has spoken with admirable clarity in support of Oregonians who are struggling with mental illness, voting 59-1 on Saturday to require health insurers to provide mental health coverage on equal terms with coverage for physical illness. Credit...

A comparative analysis of mandated benefit laws, 1949-2002.
Individuals are likely to have more information about their potential need for care than insurers, so the latter have concerns that potential enrollees seeking coverage may be at greater than average risk. This information asymmetry creates incentives for insurers to offer less broad coverage than the public would want...

AMA takes a 'bold shift' on the uninsured.
CHICAGO -- Individual health insurance mandates, direct-to-consumer advertising, and store-based health clinics topped the list of issues addressed at the annual meeting of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates. On the heels of Massachusetts' new mandate that all individuals must obtain health insurance, AMA delegates voted...

Will health savings accounts leave people vulnerable to bankruptcy?
YES When we studied more than 900 people who had filed for personal bankruptcy, more than half of them cited medical causes (Health Aff. [Mill-wood] Feb. 2, 2005; [Web exclusive]). This was true even though three-quarters of the debtors had health insurance at the onset of their...