Acess to Health Care Resources

NCSL Articles and Webpages on Access to Health Care

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• Community Health Centers in the Economic Downturn
  This NCSL LegisBrief discusses how community health centers are doing amid a struggling economy, January 2010.
• Improving Coverage: Using Public Programs to Expand Health Insurance Coverage 
  This publication looks at  steps states have taken to expand access to coverage for those who lack insurance. States frequently rely upon existing programs, such as Medicaid and CHIP, to cover additional children and adults, June 2009. PDF file 24 pages.
• Improving Coverage: Strengthening the Health Care Safety Net
  In addition to expanding coverage through public and private health insurance programs—covered in the first two reports in the Improving Coverage series— states can help low-income people who are uninsured by financing direct care programs that provide low-cost services, June 2009. PDF file 6 pages.
• Health Care Reports: Community Health Workers
  NCSL report examining state efforts to improve access and outreach using community health workers, September 2008. 
• Health Insurance Coverage for Young Adults 
  NCSL Legisbrief confronting the coverage gap young adults face after coverage under parental insurance or SCHIP ends and before an alternative insurance option becomes available, June 2008. 
• State Funding for Community Health Centers
  NCSL postcard showing the funding levels for community health centers by state, June 2008. PDF file 2 pages.
• Community Health Workers: Expanding the Scope of the Health Care Delivery System
  A report by NCSL staff on the use of community health workers to complement and support more formal health care networks to provide more comprehensive and supportive care in underserved communities, April 2008. PDF file 12 pages.
• How Secure is the Safety Net?
  This article from NCSL's State Legislatures Magazine addresses the issue of financing safety net providers specifically community health centers, March 2005. PDF file 3 pages.
• Health Centers
  A menu page that provides links to publications and web resources related to health centers.

Other Resources on Access to Health Care

Note: NCSL provides links to other Web sites from time to time for information purposes only. Providing these links does not necessarily indicate NCSL's support or endorsement of the site.

• Health Care Reconsidered: Options for Change a Two-Part Series on Health Care Policy  (General Overview of Forum)
  The Brooklings Institute launched the Hamilton Project in which the first panel of the two-part series focused on making health care more affordable while improving its effectiveness.  The second panel in the series highlighted a range of policy proposals for achieving the goal of universal health care coverage for all Americans.  Please click the links above for web/podcasts, transcripts and presentation slides from these forums. (April/July 2007)
• State Scorecard
  This interactive U.S. map draws from the Commission on a High Performance Health System's report, Aiming Higher: Results from a State Scorecard on Health System Performance.  Use this map to view state-specific rankings and results compared to benchmarks, and to view the number of lives and dollars each state could save by achieving benchmark levels of performance. (2007)
• Covering the Uninsured: How States Can Expand and Improve Health Coverage
  This article explains how governors and state legislators can make significant headway in reducing the number of America's uninsured, improving access to quality health care, and expanding choice and competition in the state health insurance markets. (2003)
• Cover the Uninsured Week
  A website that provides information about Cover the Uninsured Week along with other resources addressing the uninsured such as fact sheets, chart books, and state-by-state profiles.
• Economic Research on Initiative on the Uninsured (ERIU)
  An initiative housed at the University of Michigan and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that conducts research on health coverage topics. 
• Families USA: The Uninsured
  Families USA is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization that has a website with news, publications, and other resources on the topic of the uninsured. 
• Health Coverage and the Uninsured
  A Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured website that provides resources and information related to health insurance coverage and the uninsured. 
• Health Insurance Coverage in America: 2006 Data Update
  A chartbook by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured about health insurance coverage data from 2005.