Although rapidly rising pharmaceutical costs have contributed to increased health expenditures nationwide, few studies have examined this trend in children with special health care needs. This study used data from two large commercial managed care plans in UnitedHealth Group to examine how many...

The role of private health plans in Medicare expanded substantially in 2004 under the Medicare Modernization Act, which builds on plan experience under Medicare+Choice, created in 1997 to offer more managed care choices for beneficiaries and recently renamed Medicare Advantage. Although sponsors...

Students of Teach For America teachers outscored their schoolmates on math achievement tests, and matched their average performance in reading, according to the findings from the first national evaluation of the impact of TFA teachers on student learning. The large-scale random assignment study,...

This four-page issue brief summarizes findings from Mathematica's evaluation of Teach For America. The researchers found that TFA teachers outperformed non-TFA teachers in the same schools in math and achieved the same results in reading. However, TFA teachers also reported greater challenges in...

This cross-sectional study examined over 7,000 low-income children between the ages of 3 and 5 living in Cincinnati. The authors hypothesized that children who lived farther from playgrounds, closer to fast food restaurants, and in unsafe neighborhoods might be more likely to be overweight. They...

Although about two-thirds of the children with special health care needs in the U.S. are insured through private, employer-based plans, little is known about the extent of family cost sharing for this vulnerable and high-cost group. This study used data from two large commercial managed care...

Researchers examined the health status, safety, and health care of participating children and families, finding that most children were in excellent or very good health. However, the youngest children were most vulnerable. Parental reports of the percentage of children in fair or poor health...

Improving the ability of the long-term care system to meet the needs of an aging population is at the top of the nation’s policy agenda. This issue brief describes the demographic characteristics of vulnerable adults—those at significant risk of needing long-term care services in the...