Past Events
Facing the Future: Understanding Federal Policy Changes and their Effect on Coverage and Affordability
April 8, 2026
The Consumer Healthcare Experience State Survey (CHESS) consistently reveals that affordability remains the top barrier preventing individuals from obtaining health insurance and accessing necessary care. With the enactment of the House Reconciliation bill (H.R. 1), these financial challenges are poised to intensify for many…
More InfoData in Action: Using Consumer Healthcare Experience State Survey (CHESS) Results in Practice
January 7, 2026
The challenge of health care affordability affects individuals and families across the country, yet its true impact on communities is not always clear. We invite you to attend an engaging webinar focused on using Consumer Healthcare Experience State Survey (CHESS) data to support effective…
More InfoHospital Consolidation: Affordability and Access Concerns for Patients
November 18, 2024
Join us for a webinar discussing hospital consolidation and its impact on health care prices, affordability, and access to care for patients. This webinar will include a discussion of the relationship between consolidation, market concentration, and health care prices in Connecticut from 2016-2021,…
More InfoIntroducing the 2024 Healthcare Value Hub Healthcare Affordability Policy Affordability Snapshot and Dashboard
October 23, 2024
The Healthcare Value Hub is excited to present the redesigned 2024 Health Care Affordability Policy Snapshot and the accompanying Affordability Dashboard, tools designed to empower legislators, consumer advocates, and policymakers with a comprehensive view of state-level health care…
More InfoBuilding on the Affordable Care Act: Working with States and Marketplace Enrollees to Address Cost Challenges
October 21, 2024
Join us for an exclusive webinar to explore the findings from the Marketplace Affordability Project, which explores cost challenges faced by individuals and families enrolled in Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace coverage, and by individuals and families who are systematically excluded from access to…
More InfoFrom Shortage to Strength: ARPA and the Home Care Workforce Across the Southern United States
September 27, 2024
Southern states have a high concentration of adults with self-care disabilities and a large gap between the availability of home care workers and the potential need for services. Low recruitment and poor retention rates due to below-average wages, physical and emotional burnout, long hours,…
More InfoMore Than a Smile: Dental Affordability Problems and Potential Solutions
October 26, 2023
Consumer Healthcare Experience State Surveys from multiple states have revealed that people with insurance still go without critical services due to cost.1 Most frequently reported is dental care, with respondents across insurance types foregoing dentures, root canals, extractions, and many other dental…
More InfoPrior Authorization and Its Impact on Affordability Webinar
August 24, 2023
Prior authorization was originally developed to curtail expensive tests or care that was not needed in order for care to be more cost-effective. However, over time, insurers began requiring prior authorization for many common medical services. Now, the system creates administrative burdens, delays needed…
More InfoPublic Health Emergency Unwinding: Implications and Strategies for Support
May 19, 2023
The end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) is anticipated to impact coverage and care for millions of people with Medicaid nationwide. In addition to the end of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement, the PHE unwinding will also impact the many temporary provisions and…
More InfoAffordable for Who? Steps for States to Include Equity in Affordability Policies
July 13, 2022
Healthcare affordability burdens are all too familiar within the American healthcare system, but they do not affect all groups equally. In addition to facing greater health disparities, non-white communities and low-income earners experience greater affordability burdens—two things that are…
More InfoIll-Gotten Gains: The Inequity of Rising Medical Debt and How States Can Respond
April 28, 2022
Between 2009 and 2020, unpaid medical bills became the largest source of debt that Americans owe collections agencies. Medical debt is an increasing problem for consumers and disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic families, uninsured households and households with little or no wealth. In addition, hospitals are increasingly taking…
More InfoDisrupting the Medical Debt Collection Highway
March 12, 2020
Healthcare costs are a major concern for people in the US, with over 137 million people struggling to pay medical bills and 79 million people burdened with medical debt. Healthcare provider bills are often viewed as vague and arbitrary, with…
More InfoUsing Medicare to Benchmark Healthcare Prices: Too Much, Too Little or Just Right?
February 28, 2020
There is a strong consensus that the primary driver of high and rising healthcare spending in the United States is unit prices—the individual prices associated with any product or service like a medication or a medical procedure. Moreover, research shows that prices may not reflect the underlying…
More InfoPolicy Approaches to Healthcare Affordability-Is Now the Time to (Finally) Make Progress?
February 12, 2020
Polling data repeatedly shows that healthcare affordability is the number one issue that people, on both sides of the political aisle, want elected officials to address. Until recently, however, policymakers lacked a clearly defined menu of policy options to inform legislative change. Efforts to make healthcare…
More InfoPolicy Approaches to Healthcare Affordability: Is Now the Time to (Finally) Make Progress?
February 12, 2020
The Healthcare Value Hub’s healthcare affordability mini-conference, “Policy Approaches to Healthcare Affordability: Is Now the Time to (Finally) Make Progress,” was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on February 12, 2020. This event featured policy experts who identified a broad spectrum…
More InfoPublic and Private Strategies to Address Healthcare Provider Consolidation
October 25, 2019
Addressing healthcare provider consolidation has been at the forefront of state-level policy conversations for years. Georgetown’s Center for Health Insurance Reform recently completed six case studies of healthcare markets that have experienced recent provider consolidation. To no one’s surprise, these case studies show provider consolidation and…
More InfoIt Costs What?! The Role of Media in Exposing Crazy Healthcare Prices
August 29, 2019
According to poll after poll, consumers’ top concern is healthcare–specifically, consumers want policymakers to address the affordability of healthcare. A particular patient grievance is the bizarre range of prices – all of them unaffordable. This webinar featured two investigative journalists–a regional reporter and a podcaster–who have reported on the murky healthcare…
More InfoSingle Payer: What Needs to be Included to Bend the Cost Curve?
May 16, 2019
The U.S. healthcare system has long been criticized for its complex design, high prices and inequitable coverage and uneven outcomes. Our fragmented payment system, in particular, has been cited as a reason for high healthcare spending and excessive administrative spending. One proposal to address…
More InfoA Spotlight on the Virginia Center for Health Innovation
January 11, 2019
This webinar featured Beth Bortz, the President and CEO of the Virginia Center for Health Innovation, who described the Center’s unique public/private partnership that gives them the ability to leverage state-wide data to inform evidence-based, value-driven policy. Bortz described the Center’s new dashboard tool…
More InfoHigh-Value, Patient-Centered Healthcare: Where’s the Greatest Return on Investment?
November 18, 2018
The Hub’s High-Value, Patient-Centered Care: Where’s the Greatest Return on Investment? conference was held Nov. 14-16, 2018, at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans. It featured advocate leaders and national experts with an interest in a high-value health system that is equitable, patient-centered, allocates resources wisely…
More InfoHow To Talk About Prescription Drug Affordability: New Focus Group Results
October 3, 2018
Polling shows very strong public support for making skyrocketing prescription drug prices more affordable. The results from three recent focus groups in Maryland demonstrate how deep this support is across party and demographic lines. The results show how consumers respond to messages about system…
More InfoTalking to Consumers about Health System Fixes: New Focus Group Results
September 14, 2018
On a bipartisan basis, consumer outrage over high healthcare costs and system complexity is well documented. Consumers have signaled they are willing to act to change the system but they don’t know how to get started. Advocacy groups can step into this void but data on…
More InfoPushing the Envelope: State Insurance Regulator Authority to Address Healthcare Affordability
March 16, 2018
Surprisingly, insurance regulators are rarely explicitly empowered to use affordability as a factor in the annual evaluation of proposed health insurance rates, known as “rate review.” Insurers, however—with their teams of actuaries, claims of innovation, unparalleled access to claims data, and knowledge of provider…
More InfoWill the Real Cost Drivers Please Stand Up?
January 19, 2018
High healthcare spending is a top concern policymakers, advocates and consumers alike. But what is driving our ever-increasing spending? New research provides details about the relative importance of various cost drivers (e.g., unit prices, disease prevalence and intensity, obesity, etc.), both overall and within…
More InfoHow Healthcare Markets Fail to Deliver Value: A Discussion with Elisabeth Rosenthal
September 15, 2017
Physician-turned-journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal—formerly a reporter for The New York Times, now the editor in chief of the nonprofit Kaiser Health News—is best known for a prizewinning series of articles, “Paying Till It Hurts.” In her new book, An American Sickness, Rosenthal…
More InfoLaissez Faire Healthcare? Opportunities and Limits of a Free Market in Healthcare
May 19, 2017
Some argue that to improve the cost and quality of healthcare, the government should get out of the way and let the free market reign. Yet healthcare is different from other consumer products and services in ways that can make such an approach challenging.
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