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From this page you can view our recent publications, listed below with the most recent at the top of the list.

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Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association Enrollee Survey: Assessing the Results (Chartbook)
Publication Year: 2013

This chartbook summarizes the findings of the 2012 Minnesota Comprehensive Health Association (MCHA) Enrollee Survey based on demographics; health characteristics; access and utilization of health coverage; experience with MCHA; topics in health reform; and potential outreach avenues for program administrators. 

The charts in this report are designed to provide snapshots first of the overall MCHA population and then by more specific subpopulations such as income level, geographic residence, and plan deductible.

The figures in this report were created to present a more complete picture of the characteristics of the MCHA population and to aid program administrators in outreach efforts as enrollees transition from MCHA and into other insurance vehicles.

SHADAC and SHARE Newsletter, May 16, 2013
Publication Year: 2013

SHADAC and SHARE's newsletter provides up-to-date information on recent publications and presentations, news from and about the states, and announcements of upcoming events.

Using State Surveys to Evaluate Health Care Reform
Publication Year: 2013

Symposium: Evaluating Health Care Reform: Are Federal and State Surveys Meeting the Need?

Kathleen Thiede Call, "Using State Surveys to Evaluate Health Care Reform."

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 reinforced and generated new data needs for monitoring and evaluating health reform in the Unites States overall and in individual states.  Staff at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health recently developed a framework for tracking the impacts of the ACA.  The framework focuses on monitoring change over time in three main areas relevant to the ACA:  health insurance coverage (uninsurance, public coverage, employer-sponsored insurance, and health insurance exchange); affordability and comprehensiveness of health insurance coverage (cost-sharing, financial burden associated with health insurance); and access to health insurance services (use of services including usual sources of care and preventive care services, barriers to care including difficulty finding a provider, system-level access, and the role of safety net providers).  Studying the effects of the ACA on these key outcomes will not only provide important insights for federal and state policymakers early on in the full implementation of the ACA but inform future policy decisions as well.

Possible data sources for assessing the impact of the ACA include general population surveys, provider surveys, Medicaid and all-payer claims databases, and health plan data reported to insurance regulators. This symposium will focus on federal and state-level general population surveys and adjustments these surveys have made in the past couple of years to address information needs related to health reform policy.  Key survey changes have included sample improvements (e.g., increase in sample sizes for individual states, oversampling enhancements); expansions in survey questionnaire content specifically relevant to health reform (e.g., insurance coverage via a health insurance exchange); and attempts to expedite access to policy-relevant data for timely analysis and dissemination.  Our symposium will concentrate particularly on adjustments in questionnaire design and will summarize changes to U.S. Census Bureau and National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) surveys and health surveys conducted in select states in response to the new health reform environment. Three federal surveys will be addressed: the Current Population Survey (CPS), the American Community Survey (ACS), and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Our symposium will highlight the strengths and weaknesses across these surveys and discuss outstanding gaps in information needs related to monitoring and evaluating ACA and health reform efforts in general.

State Estimates of the Low-Income Uninsured Not Eligible for the ACA Medicaid Expansion
Publication Year: 2013

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will expand access to affordable health insurance for millions of Americans. In states that choose to implement the Medicaid expansion for low-income adults, Medicaid will provide an important new pathway to coverage. Yet, even in states that choose to expand Medicaid a significant proportion of the low-income nonelderly adult population will be excluded from the Medicaid expansion due to their immigration status. Legal permanent residents, in most circumstances, are ineligible for Medicaid benefits for the first five years during which they reside legally in the U.S. and unauthorized immigrants are excluded from Medicaid coverage. This brief provides the first state-specific estimates of the number of uninsured low-income adults that will potentially be excluded from the Medicaid expansion because of their immigration status.

Developing Subannual Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage from the American Community Survey: Challenges and Promising Next Steps
Publication Year: 2013

This report was prepared jointly by authors at the Urban Institute and SHADAC for the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).  In it, the authors make the case that the value of the American Community Survey (ACS) for the purposes of monitoring and evaluating the ACA could be improved through the generation of subannual estimates of insurance coverage, because such estimates would provide a closer temporal link between state decisions and insurance outcomes than is discernable using annual estimates.  The authors describe how ACS subannual estimates could be developed, the challenges associated with this task, and potential next steps.