Impact of Rural School-Based Health Centers on Asthma Management.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that students with asthma who have access to school-based health centers (SBHCs) receive more recommended preventive care and use less emergency care, we compared patterns of health care utilization among rural students with asthma by SBHC access.

Study Design: Using a cross-sectional design, we analyzed encounters for all patients ages 4 through 19 living in 4 counties covered by a health care system that sponsors a network of SBHCs in rural upstate New York. Patient addresses for each encounter were geocoded to school districts, allowing us to determine whether students lived in districts with (n = 15) or without (n = 23) a SBHC.

School-based health centers as an approach to address health disparities among rural youth: A study protocol for a multilevel research framework.

School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) are important healthcare providers for children in medically underserved communities. While most existing research on SBHCs has focused on urban environments, this study protocol proposes a mixed-methods, multi-level research framework to evaluate the role of SBHCs in addressing health disparities among underserved children and adolescents in rural communities. The study area includes four high-poverty rural counties in New York State served by Bassett Healthcare Network that permits a comparison of school districts with SBHCs to those without SBHCs, all served by providers within the Bassett Healthcare Network.

My Wife Is My Insurance Policy: Household Bargaining and Couples' Purchase of Long-Term Care Insurance.

This paper examines household decisions over long-term care insurance (LTCI) purchases through a bargaining lens. Long-term care insurance purchase is a discrete decision around which spouses' interests may diverge substantially. The cost of buying LTCI is typically borne by both spouses, but the benefits of LTCI go disproportionately to women, who are more likely to need long-term care for themselves, and to benefit from the asset protection and other support LTCI offers in the event their husband needs care.