Obamacare hasn’t led to higher health care costs for businesses
Predictions that Obamacare would lead to substantially higher costs for employers have not materialized three years after the U.S. health care overhaul became law. In an October 16, 2014 Bloomberg News article, health economist Katherine Baicker of Harvard…
The provocative pragmatist
[ Spring 2014 ] With a mixture of research, persuasion, and social media moxie, Ashish Jha seeks to drive health care improvements Several years ago, Ashish Jha got the call that middle-aged children dread. His mother was on the phone…
Significant decline in deaths after Massachusetts’ health reform
Findings offer insights into population-level health effects that could occur under Affordable Care Act For immediate release: Monday, May 5, 2014 Boston, MA — In the first four years after Massachusetts instituted comprehensive health reform in 2006, mortality…
ACA’s impact on jobs ignites debate
In the midst of a debate about Obamacare’s impact on the U.S. economy, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty say that it’s important to focus not only on the potential economic impact of the health reform law…
The ACA and jobs
February 2014 – Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, talks about the potential effects of the Affordable Care Act on employment. (Conversations in Public Health, 5:01) Please click the play…
HSPH experts comment on Affordable Care Act
January 9, 2014 -- Throughout the legal and political wranglings over the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—the landmark health care reform law passed in 2010—Harvard School of Public Health researchers have been contributing to the national conversation on the…
Having Medicaid increases emergency room visits
Unique study on Oregon’s citizens sheds light on critical care in the U.S. For immediate release: January 2, 2014 Boston, MA -- Adults who are covered by Medicaid use emergency rooms 40 percent more than those in similar…
Spike in Medicaid enrollment could have health benefits for low-income adults
Katherine Baicker, professor of health economics at Harvard School of Public Health, was quoted in a November 20, 2013 NPR story on the recent spike in Medicaid enrollment as more people become eligible through the Affordable Care Act.…
Working the (health) system
[Fall 2013 Centennial issue] A standard medical test that could have been done for a tenth of the cost. A doctor’s momentary lapse in attention that led to grievous injury—or even death. An upside-down health care bureaucracy that…
Government shutdown and the ACA
The acrimonious politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, led to a government shutdown on October 1, 2013—the day the ACA’s health exchanges debuted. But [[Robert Blendon]], Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and professor…