WVAHC Logo West Virginians for Affordable Health Care


Committed to affordable health care for all West Virginians... and doing something about it!

Resources

Cover the Kids

sick childTo learn why covering children under Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is so important and to find out what other states are doing to cover all children, read the following two reports from the Kaiser Foundation.

The Illinois program is the most expansive effort in the country for covering all children. While it would be difficult to duplicate Illinois’s program here, it’s time West Virginia covers as many children as possible.

WVAHC's Blueprint for Health Care Reform

Blueprint for Health Care ReformRun-away health care costs put everyone’s care in jeopardy. We’ve looked at the research, consulted experts, and talked with our fellow West Virginians, and we see solutions. They involve straightforward, doable actions to control health care costs and provide coverage to everyone. Our Blueprint outlines the many improvements and reforms that are entirely possible within our state, right now.

Prescription Drug Trends

Kaiser LogoThis is a Kaiser Family Foundation Report on Prescription Drug Trends.  Prescription drugs are vital to preventing and treating illness and helping to avoid more costly medical problems. Rising costs and implementation of the new Medicare drug benefit have highlighted the need for a better understanding of the pharmaceutical market and for new approaches to address rising costs.

Families USA Counts Deaths Due to Lack of Coverage

Families USA has generated the first-ever state-level estimates of the number of deaths due to lack of health insurance. Their estimates are based on both the Institute of Medicine and The Urban Institute methodologies applied to state-level data. In 2006, there were nearly 1,043,000 people between the ages of 25 and 64 living in West Virginia. Of those, 16.5 percent were uninsured.2 Uninsured West Virginians are sicker and die sooner than their insured counterparts. Read the details here.

Miliken Institute Finds West Virginia Chronically Ill

Miliken Institute logo The Milken Institute found that West Virginia had the highest incidents of seven chronic illnesses in the country. These seven illnesses listed in order of number of cases in West Virginia are: pulmonary conditions, hypertension, mental disorders, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and stroke. These conditions shorten lives, reduce quality of life, and have a significant and negative impact on businesses. While West Virginia spends $2.3 billion on treating these seven illnesses, it cost businesses $8.1 billion in lost productivity from these illnesses. The West Virginia data can be found here.

Get the Junk Out of Our Schools

soft drink machineThe prestigious Institute of Medicine issued an April 2007 report that calls on schools to ban trans fat and limit calories, fat, sugar and sodium in foods sold in schools. Additionally, the report calls on schools to ban soft drinks sold during school time.

Who Has the Best?  U.S.?

Commonwealth FundMany Americans believe that we have the best health care system in the world. The Commonwealth Fund, a national health care research organization, studied the health care systems of six different countries: Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, England and the United States. The report examined Quality of Care, including right care, safe care, coordinated care, and patient-center care, as well as access, efficiency, equity, and long, healthy and productive lives. Despite spending almost double the average of these five other countries, the United States was rated last or second to last on all but one of these criteria. Canada didn’t do much better. They were rated fifth out of the six countries. England was the first rate country, followed by Germany, with Australia and New Zealand tied for third place. You can read the entire Mirror, Mirror on the Wall report, or click on a chart that summaries the report.

Costs are Rising

Kaiser Logo The most recent Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of Employer Health Benefits found that from spring 2006 to spring 2007, premiums for health care rose 6.1 percent for employers. The average premium for a family plan is now more than $12,000 a year. While the increase in premiums were below the double digit increases in health care that we experienced earlier in this decade, it is more than double the overall rate of inflation (2.6%), and exceeded wage gains which were 3.7%. During the last four years, premiums have increased by more than a third.

In 1960 Americans spent $28 billion on health care, just a little over 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP). By 2004 spending had increased 66 fold to $1.9 trillion, and consumed 16.0% of our GDP. On a per person basis the 1960 amount of $148 had grown to $6,300 in 2004. Put another way: What we spent during the entire year in 1960 would purchase 5 1/2 days of health care in 2004.  The chart says it all.

Uninsurance

ACPRead this important paper authored by the American College of Physicians:  No Health Insurance? It's Enough to Make You Sick - Scientific Research Linking the Lack of Health Coverage to Poor Health  You'll find that uninsured Americans experience reduced Access to Care, uninsured Americans are less likely to have a regular source of care, uninsured Americans are less likely to have had a recent physician visit, uninsured Americans are more likely to delay seeking care, uninsured Americans are more likely to report they have not received needed care. Uninsured Americans are less likely to use preventive services. Uninsured Americans experience poorer medical outcomes.  They experience a generally higher mortality and a specifically higher in-hospital mortality and may be up to three times more likely than privately insured individuals to experience adverse health outcomes. Uninsured Americans have been found to be up to four times as likely as insured patients to require both avoidable hospitalizations and emergency hospital care.

Advance Directives

Advance DirectivesBecause most health care dollars are spent in the last few months of life, we all need to be certain that we get only the care we need and the care we want.  Each of us should have a living will and medical power of attorney.  A living will tells your doctor what life-prolonging interventions you want to be used if you are terminally ill or in a persistent vegetative state.  A medical power of attorney gives someone whom you select the right to make medical decisions for you if you become unable to do so.  The West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care has all the forms and information you need to make a living will and medical power of attorney or you can download the forms here: 

Who Spends the Most for Health?

Health AffairsExpenditures for health care are concentrated in relatively small number of patients according to a Health Affairs article. Concentration of Health Care Expenses Revisted found that the sickest one percent of individuals use 27 percent of health care expenses. The top 5 percent use 55% of all health carte dollars. By contrast the healthiest 50 percent of the population only uses 3% of health care expenses.  Any effort to control health care inflation has to concentrate on the sickest individuals and to prevent others from becoming this sick. No public policy or amount of education that is aimed at the healthiest 50% of the population will have any meaningful impact on overall health care expenses.

340B Drug Pricing Program Sites

340bWest Virginia’s federally qualified health clinics -- or FQHCs -- are mostly rural clinics that accept all patients regardless of their ability to pay. They provide quality primary care, and have access to what is called 340B prescription drugs. These brand name drugs are priced 50 to 60 percent below the average wholesale price and 10 percent below Canadian drug prices. West Virginian’s federally qualified clinics are well suited to provide the state’s residents with quality, low cost primary care. We should actively encourage their use. A list of the West Virginia clinics that dispense 340B drugs can be found here.