Betsy Q Cliff

"Privately funded basic biomedical R&D is only viable when the market for it is good, and we didn't know it was going to be bad." - one of the people most likely to be able to tell whether the market was going to be good or not

KFF graphic featuring a quote from Cynthia Cox, KFF Vice President and Director of the Program on the ACA. It says, “The amount health insurers charge for coverage on the ACA Marketplaces is rising 26%, on average, in 2026... Most enrollees would face even sharper increases in what they pay if they ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits expire.”

Across all states, benchmark ACA premiums will rise an average of 26% next year, though most enrollees would see sharper increases if the enhanced tax credits expire.

KFF’s Cynthia Cox explains the numbers. #QuickTake https://on.kff.org/3WNhiDz

As a bonus, we estimate population prevalence of individuals without complex medical conditions enrolled in Medicaid as a percent of total state populations at each age. Hope to help researchers and policymakers to benchmark samples and support research across the transition from peds to adult care

Prevalence of Complex Medical Conditions Among Teens and Young Adults in Medicaid: National and State Estimates An increasing number of children with complex medical conditions (CMCs) survive into adulthood. Medicaid is a key payer for this population, yet enrollment in Medicaid for adolescents with CMCs throug...

Just out in JAH: We address lack of information prevalence of complex medical conditions in Medicaid across the transition to adulthood (ages 15-25) among older teenagers and young adults. Estimates for 47 states + DC: www.jahonline.org/article/S105...

Absolutely honored to win this year's James F. Burgess Methods Article-of-the-Year Award, along with @betsyqcliff.bsky.social @juliaedd.bsky.social and @markmeiselbach.bsky.social for our HSR article on deductible imputation in administrative claims datasets!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

National Health Expenditures In 2023: Faster Growth As Insurance Coverage And Utilization Increased | Health Affairs Journal Health care spending in the US reached $4.9 trillion and increased 7.5 percent in 2023, growing from a rate of 4.6 percent in 2022. In 2023, the insured share of the population reached 92.5 percent, a...

New health spending data out today: National health expenditures - which includes spending by private and public payers - were up 7.5% in 2023, reaching nearly $5 trillion (!)

www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10....

Insurance companies like United Healthcare are not the only ones to blame for a broken system The public response to United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder misunderstands something important.

"Because health insurance has become the face of both the rising premiums and the intrusive cost-containment efforts that are largely delegated to them, they have become the primary target of that anger. But it’s not just insurers," Elliott S. Fisher writes: www.statnews.com/2024/12/05/u...

Agreed—excellent essay. In funding and publishing researchers rely on crisis language to elevate importance. I love her point that—in public messaging—that can be harmful

Huge, huge thanks to @shooshan.bsky.social who took on the work of compiling many more health economists than I had yet added to the Starter Pack. So many names I recognize for early health econ Twitter, and so many new voices that I don't but look forward to hearing from.
bsky.app/starter-pack...

@cynthiaccox.bsky.social looked at this. Turns out new mothers have a lot of other expenses, and a little bit of cost-sharing is enough to push some into debt.
www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/medica...

Please add me to this starter pack!

For a social scientist, this is basically winning the lottery

#EconSky and #healthpolicy - Want to research health insurance but don't have plan deductibles in your data? Imputing is easier than you might think! @markmeiselbach.bsky.social, Matt Eisenberg, Julia Eddelbuettel and I show you how in a new HSR Methods Brief (doi.org/10.1111/1475...)