贫困人群医疗救助的若干关键问题

对医疗救助的理论进行了回顾与整理,探讨了对贫困人群实施医疗救助的概念与意义,讨论了医疗救助中的若干关键问题,包括:医疗救助对象的确定、优先需要的确定、医疗救助中的社会性别问题、服务效果与服务质量问题以及筹资问题.     

医疗救助档案的管理体制与原则

我国医疗保障制度改革的方向是建立以基本医疗保险为主体,补充性医疗保险、社会医疗救助制度等为辅助的多层次医疗保障体系。在社会主义市场经济条件下,适应社会弱势群体的医疗需求,尽快建立社会医疗救助制度,对于缓解他们的医疗困难,促进社会稳定,推动医疗保障制度改革顺利进行,具有十分重要的意义。对缓解贫困人口看病难、看病贵的问题作出了极大的贡献,但是在发展过程中,仍然存在着对救助对象的确定缺乏科学性、医疗救助和制度衔接错位等问题,通过加强档案规范化建设,对上述问题进行分析并提出建议,使农村医疗救助更好的进入规范化、制度化、科学化的轨道。     

农村医疗救助制度现状的分析及建议

贫困人口医疗救助制度是我国农村医疗保障制度的组成部分,在我国的社会保障体系中起着重大的作用,而处于初级发展阶段的农村医疗救助制度也存在着许多问题,需要通过确立政府在医疗救助中的主导位置,加强农村大病医疗救助的力度,建立社会救助机构和基金,完善其与新型农村合作医疗制度的衔接和建立医疗救助政策法规体系而实现。     

完善我国农村医疗救助制度的对策思考

本文通过对我国农村医疗救助存在问题的梳理和原因剖析.提出了相应的对策建议,强调对我国农村贫困人口的医疗救助是政府应该承担的责任,要使基本的新型农村医疗保险制度与农村医疗救助相融合.形成综合性的救助模式,不断扩大医疗救助的可及性、公平性,真正维护和保障广大农村贫困人口的健康权、生存权和发展权.     

中国城乡医疗救助差异问题研究

本文基于中国国家统计局、中国民政部、中国卫生部以及中华人民共和国政府网站的有关数据资料,描述了中国城乡医疗救助中救助人数、医疗支出、政策法规存在的差异,分析发现城乡医疗救助覆盖面较窄,城镇人均医疗救助额明显高于农村,国家财政对城乡医疗救助的资金支持不足等,针对此问题提出了扩大城乡医疗救助覆盖面,扩大城乡医疗救助服务面,加大财政支持力度,加大宣传力度,提高城乡居民收入等建议,希望有利于促进城乡医疗救助的完善。     

国外医疗救助制度的创新经验及借鉴

医疗救助是指国家和社会针对城乡最低生活保障人口的医疗问题,通过拨款和捐助等多渠道,实施专门的帮助与支持。目前,我国已初步建立涵盖城镇居民、农民的医疗保险和农村合作医疗,社会医疗水平得到了显著提高,但仍存在医疗救助资金不足、区域差距明显、覆盖范围不广等问题,大部分社会困难群体仍游离于医疗救助范围之外。针对于此,笔者对国外医疗救助制度的经验进行具体分析,进而借鉴国外相关经验,提出完善我国医疗救助制度的有效建议。     

贫困人口的健康服务:人口与发展的一个新领域

较系统地阐述了人口、发展及贫困的关系,重点阐述了我国农村地区贫困人口健康服务的状况及问题.应在社会可持续发展框架下全面审视和统筹解决贫困人口健康服务不公平的问题.在目前中国现实国情下,对贫困人口应实施医疗救助计划,改善其健康服务,以促进社会发展,实现公平.展望了贫困人口健康问题研究的前景及其与其它学科在医疗救助领域中的合作问题.     

贫困人口的健康服务：人口与发展的一个新领域

较系统地阐述了人口、发展及贫困的关系,重点阐述了我国农村地区贫困人口健康服务的状况及问题.应在社会可持续发展框架下全面审视和统筹解决贫困人口健康服务不公平的问题.在目前中国现实国情下,对贫困人口应实施医疗救助计划,改善其健康服务,以促进社会发展,实现公平.展望了贫困人口健康问题研究的前景及其与其它学科在医疗救助领域中的合作问题.     

黑龙江农村贫困人口社会救助研究

目前,黑龙江人口的贫困发生率和农村人口的贫困发生率都高于全国平均水平,是贫困发生率较高的地区,这凸显出黑龙江农村贫困人口社会救助工作的艰巨性。黑龙江省贫困人口社会救助主要包括生活社会救助、医疗社会救助和生产社会救助,这对农村贫困人口的生产、生活起到了重要的作用,但是仍存在救助范围狭窄、救助内容过于侧重绝对贫困、救助形式单一等问题。为解决这些问题,黑龙江省应重视对农村贫困人口的教育救助,加强农村社会救助对象与救助标准的透明度,增强农村贫困人口医疗社会救助的投入力度。     

公共政策视角下我国医疗救助的现状及改善对策

医疗救助是指针对一些遭受疾病折磨且在生活上陷入困境的特殊社会群体,政府为其提供的一种公共服务。现行的医疗救助体现为政府在医疗卫生领域与社会救助领域制定和实施的公共政策行为,符合公共政策运行的规范。但目前我国的医疗救助体系存在诸多问题,本文通过对其现状分析并借助国外的医疗救助模式,提出对我国医疗救助改善的相关对策。     

Do Hostile Takeovers Improve Performance?

This article challenges the conventional wisdom that hostile takeovers - or threats of them - act as a discipline on managers of poorly performing firms. It raises two questions. If takeovers do not assist in the restructuring of poorly performing firms, then how is control exerted? And, conversely, if poor performance before the bid is not the main factor associated with hostile takeovers, what is? In a final section, the authors raise some policy issues which emerge from the long research programme summarised in the earlier part of the article.     

Endogeneity in survey research

Endogeneity is a crucial problem in survey-based empirical research on marketing strategy (MS) and inter-organizational relationships (IORs); if not addressed, it can cause researchers to arrive at flawed conclusions and to offer poor advice to practitioners. Although the field is increasingly cognizant of endogeneity-related issues, many authors fail to properly address it, particularly in survey-based research. Emphasizing the role of essential heterogeneity, this article develops an overarching framework to help improve the understanding of endogeneity problems and how to tackle them when researchers use cross-sectional survey-based data. The authors provide explanations of and advice for how MS and IOR researchers can address six “painful” and sometimes hidden decisions: 1) Do you have an endogeneity problem? 2) What technique/estimator is appropriate? 3) What instrumental variables (IVs) should be chosen? 4) How should IVs be evaluated empirically? 5) How should the results be interpreted and evaluated? and 6) What results should you report? The authors provide a practical flowchart to guide researchers in their efforts to address endogeneity-related concerns.     

Medicaid, State Finances, and the Bottom Line for Businesses

Current Medicaid expenditures account for about nine percent of the federal budget and almost a quarter of state budgets and are growing rapidly. State Medicaid budgets are especially vulnerable to recession since states cannot incur large and sustained fiscal deficits. Without change, Medicaid burdens will cause state finances to be diverted from infrastructure and education, with negative effects on the costs and productivity of business. Also affecting business are the state governments experimenting with policies that shift Medicaid burdens to private employers. Simultaneously, the states are initiating efforts to ease Medicaid’s relentless cost increases and address its long-run problems. JEL Classification I180,H720     

Utility of university curricula in contemporary times: Perspectives of employers in the Cape Coast Metropolis

The majority of studies and reports on university education in Africa have focused mainly on issues related to access, quality, teaching and learning environment, and so on. Although these issues are undoubtedly critical, even more germane to the discourse is the desired utility of university education to society. The authors present the perspective of employers on their expectations from university graduates. The authors employed the qualitative research approach. Four financial institutions from the Cape Coast Metropolis were purposively sampled. An in-depth interview guide was employed for data collection, which was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The authors found that graduates are strong in theory but deficient in application of knowledge.     

Understanding the Impact of Health Reform on the States: Expansion of Coverage through Medicaid and Exchanges

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands Medicaid coverage and creates subsidized state health insurance exchanges. The implementation of the ACA will impact the states and consequently the state residents differently. We discuss the factors contributing to the variation in uninsured rates and the Medicaid population, and we predict that these underlying economic, demographic factors and state policies will continue to affect health insurance coverage. Using data from the March 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS), we examine health care coverage at the state level prior to the ACA and forecast the percentage of state residents eligible for expanded Medicaid and the exchanges. Our results suggest the percentage of state population eligible for expanded Medicaid and subsidized exchanges will vary considerably, especially for adults. Further, we show that current state Medicaid eligibility rules, the percentage of employers offering health insurance and poverty rates will continue to shape the variation in projected health insurance coverage across the states. Finally, we discuss the potential impact of the Supreme Court decision that allowed states to opt‐out of Medicaid expansion.     

Quality choice in Medicaid markets. The case of nursing homes.

This article examines whether private patients, who typically pay a price higher than the Medicaid reimbursement rate, receive the same or higher quality services than Medicaid patients in the same health care facility. Because the mix of patients will affect the firm's cost only when Medicaid and private patients receive different levels of quality, the cost function can be used to test for the presence of quality differences. Estimates of a cost function for Texas nursing home in 1983 indicate that the mix of patients does not affect the firm's cost. Thus, private and Medicaid patients in the same nursing home receive the same level of quality.     

Territorial disparities in Europe

Traditionally, EU policies have been focused on economic and social cohesion. Recently, the territorial dimension of regional disparities as an aspect of EU policy has gained importance. The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), adopted in 1999, is meant to support a balanced development of the EU territory. Moreover, the European Commission addressed issues of territorial cohesion in its latest cohesion report. The present paper deals with territorial disparities and their current development in the EU. It analyses which kinds of region develop dynamically and offer favourable labour market conditions. The differences between rural and urban areas are a fundamental feature of territorial disparities in the EU and are of essential significance for the ESDP. The analysis deals with the question whether disparities between poor and rich regions as well as different growth trends and labour market conditions are still marked by the dualism between city and countryside. The authors would like to thank Elena Tcharykova for her excellent research assistance.