The ongoing debates about the future of social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare raise questions about the public's knowledge of the history of social insurance and about the impact these programs have on millions of Americans. In general, public conversations about social policies in the U.S. tend to focus on whether or not…

Context: Few studies have examined hospitalization patterns among the uninsured, especially from the perspective of rural and urban differences. Purpose: To examine whether the patterns of uninsured hospitalizations differ in rural and urban hospitals and to identify the most prevalent and costly diagnoses among uninsured hospitalizations.…

Almost thirty years ago, Justice William Brennan saw clearly that American higher education was coming under the same pressures to "cut costs and increase efficiencies" to which market forces were subjecting businesses. Since Justice Brennan's observation, employers generally have sought to maximize their "flexibility' by creating a…

A fundamental concern with competitive health insurance markets is that they will not supply efficient levels of coverage for treatment of costly, chronic, and predictable illnesses, such as mental illness. Since the inception of employer-based health insurance, coverage for mental health services has been offered on a more limited basis than…

Despite the proliferation of data about student performance, secondary school educators have had difficulty accessing data on their former students' post-high school employment and earnings in the formal economy. This article describes how one community used state unemployment insurance data, merged with student record data, to investigate the…

Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for poor children designed to help close the gap between those children and their more advantaged peers before they begin public schooling. Given that Head Start appears to have positive long-run impacts on its recipients, a natural and important next question to ask is: What are the channels…

Professional psychology's ability to meet older Americans' psychological needs and to simultaneously thrive as a profession will be closely tied to the federal Medicare program over the coming decades. Despite legislative changes in the 1980s providing professional autonomy to psychologists and expanding coverage for mental health services,…

Data from the Evidence-based Treatment Survey were used to compare providers serving families in American Indian and Alaska Native communities to their counterparts in non-American Indian/Alaska Native communities on provider characteristics and factors that influence their decision to use evidence-based practices (N = 467). The findings suggest…

Presented is part 1 of a three-part report called the "National Survey of Fringe Benefits in Public Schools, 1987-88." The focus of part 1 is on the fringe benefit practices offered superintendents. Fringe benefits included are leave policies, insurance coverage, retirement provisions, tuition reimbursement, severance pay, transportation, expense…

Presented is part 2 of a three-part report called the "National Survey of Fringe Benefits in Public Schools, 1987-88." The focus of part 2 is on the fringe benefit practices offered administrators. Data are reported on leave provisions, group insurance programs, professional liability insurance, retirement plans, severance pay, tuition…

Successful phased retirement plans enable senior faculty to ease into retirement, relieve financial pressures on participating institutions, and permit upward mobility for junior faculty. Responses from 62 of the 72 land-grant institutions in the United States and Puerto Rico reveal that 11 had implemented plans that enable individuals between a…

Canada's experience with national health insurance is examined from 1971, when a comprehensive first-dollar coverage system of benefits began in the Province of Quebec, until 1975. The study defines medical market areas in the province and asks questions about the effect of the Quebec insurance plan on the distribution of physicians, the supply of…

Insurance carriers and state directors of special education were contacted for information regarding policies regarding third party payments for related services mandated for handicapped students under P. L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Insurance companies were queried regarding reimbursable services, conditions for…

This document is the first of three documents which present the Senate hearings on catastrophic health insurance called to determine how the private sector and the government can work together to lend support to the elderly and their families when they are threatened by catastrophic illness and to examine the issue of coverage of catastrophic…

This document, the second in a series of three which present the text of Senate hearings on catastrophic health insurance, focuses on the impact of catastrophic health insurance on consumers and health care providers. Testimony is included by these witnesses: (1) Senator Pete V. Domenici; (2) Wilbur Cohen, professor of Public Affairs, University…