Initial Background Materials
A series of publicly available documents were distributed to the Citizens' Health Care Working Group members prior to their first meeting in May 2005, held in Arlington, Virginia. These documents, listed below, were provided in order to give all members a common base of knowledge concerning health care issues in America today:
Papers
The Basics: Medicare. National Health Policy Forum. April 2004. (PDF file)
The Basics: Medicaid. National Health Policy Forum. April 2004. (PDF file)
The Basics: SCHIP. National Health Policy Forum. April 2004. (PDF file)
Sourcebook for Journalists, 2004. Alliance for Health Reform. Chapter 2. (PDF file)
Sourcebook for Journalists, 2004. Alliance for Health Reform. Chapter 3. (PDF file)
National health care and Medicare spending. Section 6. Medicare Payment Advisory Committee. (PDF file)
The Continuing Medicaid Budget Challenge: State Medicaid Spending Growth and Cost Containment in Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005 Results from a 50-State Survey. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. October 2004. (PDF file, 2 MB)
Health Care Coverage in America: Understanding the Issues & Proposed Solutions. Cover the Uninsured. 2004. (PDF file)
The Uninsured and Rising Health Insurance Premiums. Statement of Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director, Congressional Budget Office, before the Subcommittee on Health Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives. March 9, 2004. (PDF file)
State of the States: Finding Alternate Routes. State Coverage Initiatives project. January 2004. (PDF file, 1.8 MB)
State and Community Collaboration: Lessons from the Communities in Charge Program and Other Local Initiatives. State Coverage Initiatives project. April 2005. Isabel Friedenzohn and Terry Stoller. (PDF file, 1.3 MB)
Links
Employers Shift Rising Health Care Costs to Workers. Issue Brief No.
83
May 2004. Lydia E. Regopoulos, Sally Trude. http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/677/
More Americans Willing to Limit Physician-Hospital Choice. Issue Brief
No. 94
March 2005. Ha T. Tu. http://www.hschange.com/CONTENT/735/
Tracking Health Care Costs: Spending Growth Slowdown Stalls in first Half of 2004. Issue Brief No. 91. December 2004. Bradley C. Strunk, Paul B. Ginsburg http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/721/
Rising Health Costs, Medical Debt and Chronic Conditions. Issue Brief No. 88. September 2004. Ha T. Tu. http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/706/
Trends in Health Insurance Coverage 2003—Center for Studying Health System Change. Tracking Report No. 9. August 2004. Bradley C. Strunk, James D. Reschovsky. http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/694/
Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured: Analysis of the March 2004 Current Population Survey. Employee Benefit Research Insititute. December 2004 Issue Brief #276. http://www.ebri.org/publications/ib/index.cfm