Prognostic implications of differences in forced vital capacity in black and white US adults: Findings from NHANES III with long-term mortality follow-up.

Background: Because Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) is reduced in Black relative to White Americans of the same age, sex, and height, standard lung function prediction equations assign a lower "normal" range for Black patients. The prognostic implications of this race correction are uncertain.

Methods: We analyzed 5,294 White and 3,743 Black participants age 20-80 in NHANES III, a nationally-representative US survey conducted 1988-94, which we linked to the National Death Index to assess mortality through December 31, 2015.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Outpatient Visit Rates Across 29 Specialties.

This cross-sectional study examines US racial/ethnic disparities in outpatient visit rates to 29 physician specialties.

Socioeconomic Inequality in Respiratory Health in the US From 1959 to 2018.

Importance: Air quality has improved and smoking rates have declined over the past half-century in the US. It is unknown whether such secular improvements, and other policies, have helped close socioeconomic gaps in respiratory health.

Objective: To describe long-term trends in socioeconomic disparities in respiratory disease prevalence, pulmonary symptoms, and pulmonary function.

National Trends and Disparities in Health Care Access and Coverage Among Adults With Asthma and COPD: 1997-2018.

Background: Racial and ethnic as well as economic disparities in access to care among persons with asthma and COPD have been described, but long-term access trends are unclear.

Research Question: Have health coverage and access to care and medications among adults with airways disease improved, and have disparities narrowed?

Study Design And Methods: Using the 1997 through 2018 National Health Interview Survey, we examined time trends in health coverage and the affordability of medical care and prescription drugs for adults with asthma and COPD, overall and by income and by race and ethnicity. We performed multivariate linear probability regressions comparing coverage and access in 2018 with that in 1997.

Health Care Crisis Unabated: A Review of Recent Data on Health Care in the United States.

We review recently published studies of US health policy and the nation's health care system. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, health inequalities were widening and care was inequitably distributed. Although the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansion improved access to care and timely cancer diagnoses, a large proportion of US residents continued to avoid medical care due to concerns about costs, and access to mental health services remains particularly inadequate.

Health Needs and Functional Disability Among Mail-Order Pharmacy Users in the US.

This cross-sectional study examines the health characteristics of individuals who use mail-order pharmacies.

For-Profit Hospitals Have Thrived Because of Generous Public Reimbursement Schemes, Not Greater Efficiency: A Multi-Country Case Study.

For-profit hospitals' market share has increased in many nations over recent decades. Previous studies suggest that their growth is not attributable to superior performance on access, quality of care, or efficiency. We analyzed other factors that we hypothesized may contribute to the increasing role of for-profit hospitals.

Health Care Disparities Across the Urban-Rural Divide: A National Study of Individuals with COPD.

Purpose: The burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is high in rural America. Few studies, however, have examined urban/rural differences in health care access, or racial/ethnic and income disparities stratified by urban/rural residence, among persons with COPD.

Methods: We studied individuals age ≥ 40 years with COPD from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

The U.S. Health Care System on the Eve of the Covid-19 Epidemic: A Summary of Recent Evidence on Its Impaired Performance.

Four decades of neoliberal health policies have left the United States with a health care system that prioritizes the profits of large corporate actors, denies needed care to tens of millions, is extraordinarily fragmented and inefficient, and was ill prepared to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The payment system has long rewarded hospitals for providing elective surgical procedures to well-insured patients while penalizing those providing the most essential and urgent services, causing hospital revenues to plummet as elective procedures were cancelled during the pandemic. Before the recession caused by the pandemic, tens of millions of Americans were unable to afford care, compromising their physical and financial health; deep-pocketed corporate interests were increasingly dominating the hospital industry and taking over physicians' practices; and insurers' profits hit record levels.

Intersecting U.S. Epidemics: COVID-19 and Lack of Health Insurance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented surge in unemployment in the United States. For many, job loss carries the added sting of losing health insurance. The authors discuss the problem of lack of health insurance during a time of risk for severe illness and offer potential solutions that policymakers should consider to mitigate harm.

Health Care Administrative Costs in the United States and Canada, 2017.

Background: Before Canada's single-payer reform, its payment system, health costs, and number of health administrative personnel per capita resembled those of the United States. By 1999, administration accounted for 31% of U.S.

The Effect of Large-scale Health Coverage Expansions in Wealthy Nations on Society-Wide Healthcare Utilization.

Most analysts project that a reform like Medicare-for-All that lowers financial barriers to care would cause a surge in the utilization of services, raising costs despite stable or even reduced prices. However, the finite supply of physicians and hospital beds could constrain such utilization increases. We reviewed the effects of 13 universal coverage expansions in capitalist nations on physician and hospital utilization, beginning with New Zealand's 1938 Social Security Act up through the 2010 Affordable Care Act in the USA.