"Spillovers And Vulnerability: The Case Of Community Uninsurance," Health Affairs: For the study, economists Mark Pauly and José Pagan compared differences in health care access, use and quality among 9,552 insured adults in 10 communities with the highest and 10 with the lowest proportions of uninsured adults. According to Pauly and Pagan, insured adults who live in communities with high uninsurance rates are more likely to face problems with access to care and quality than those who live in communities where more people have health insurance. Pauly and Pagan also analyzed Community Tracking Survey data from nearly 5,000 physicians and more than 25,000 adults and found that doctors who practice in communities with high uninsurance rates are more likely to be dissatisfied with their careers and the quality of the care they provide than doctors who work in areas with lower uninsurance rates. The study is part of a series of papers in the September-October issue of Health Affairs that focuses on vulnerable populations (Health Affairs release, 9/11).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.