Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Knowledge Of Health Insurance Concepts And The Affordable Care Act Among Rural Residents, Erika C. Ziller Phd

Health System Reform

Health insurance literacy is central to identifying eligibility for coverage and subsidies, choosing a plan, and using optimal healthcare services under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or other insurance reform initiatives. To fully benefit from policy efforts to improve health insurance access, rural residents must have the ability to select the plan that best meets their healthcare needs. However, a higher proportion of rural residents possess characteristics that may put them at risk of lower health insurance literacy, including lower incomes and educational attainment, less experience with private insurance, and historically higher uninsured rates. Using Health Reform Monitoring Survey data …

Health Insurance Co-Ops: Product Availability And Premiums In Rural Counties, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Zachariah T. Croll Ba, Andrew F. Coburn Phd

Access / Insurance

Created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs) are private, non-profit health insurers that were designed to increase insurance plan choice and lower premiums in the Health Insurance Marketplaces. Early analyses of the ACA suggested that CO-OPs may be particularly beneficial for rural communities, where fewer individual and small group health insurance options have traditionally been available.

This Research and Policy Brief, authored by research staff at the Maine Rural Health Research Center, explores the early availability and role of CO-OPs in rural and urban counties. We describe the regional distribution and market prevalence of …

High Deductible Health Insurance Plans In Rural Areas, Jennifer D. Lenardson Mhs, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Andrew F. Coburn Phd

Access / Insurance

Enrollment in high deductible health plans (HDHPs) has increased amid concerns about growing health care costs to patients, employers, and insurers. Prior research indicates that rural individuals are more likely than their urban counterparts to face high out-of-pocket health care costs relative to income, despite coverage through private health insurance, a difference related both to the lower income of rural residents generally and to the quality of the private plans through which they have coverage. Using the 2007-2010 National Health Interview Survey, this study examines rural residents’ enrollment in HDHPs and the implications for evolving Affordable Care Act Health Insurance …

Profile Of Rural Health Insurance Coverage: A Chartbook, Jennifer D. Lenardson Mhs, Erika C. Ziller Phd, Andrew F. Coburn Phd

Access / Insurance

More than twenty years of research has demonstrated that rural residents are at greater risk of being uninsured compared to urban residents and more recent studies point to problems of underinsurance as well. Most studies have shown that the problems of uninsurance and underinsurance are greatest among rural residents living in smaller communities located further from more urbanized areas. Section I examines recent estimates and changes since 1997 in rural health insurance coverage. Section II explores differences in the demographic, socio-economic, employment and other risk factors for uninsurance among rural and urban residents. Section III profiles the demographic and economic …