Access to Services & Benefits

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts on health care delivery, particularly services that require in-person interactions. For patients needing access to medications to treat pain or certain substance use disorders, the COVID-19 pandemic presented particular challenges for continuity of treatment.

This issue brief analyzes changes in health insurance coverage and examines trends in access to care among Black Americans using data from 2011-2020. This Issue Brief is part of a series of ASPE reports examining the change in coverage rates and access to care after implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) among different racial and ethnic populations.

Telehealth services expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey (HPS) in 2021, this Issue Brief analyzes national trends in telehealth utilization across all payers and examines how use of video-enabled vs. audio-only telehealth services differ across patient populations.

This report provides an overview of the characteristics of the immigrant population in the United States, their health status and barriers to care, recent trends in health insurance coverage, their access to Federal health programs, and how they have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It also offers possible policy approaches to improve health care equity for this diverse population.

Participation in the social safety net varies widely across programs—from 15 percent among eligibles for subsidized child care (CCDF) to over 75 percent for Medicaid/CHIP and EITC.  Participation differs by race and ethnicity, yet patterns are not consistent. In general rates differ more across programs than between race-ethnic groups.

Network adequacy is often defined as having enough providers within a health plan network to ensure reasonable and timely access to care. At a minimum, health plans should include a sufficient number of providers who deliver mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) services (collectively referred to in this report as behavioral health services) to support access to those services.

This brief discusses the perspectives of a group of working parents on receipt of federal benefits. Based on focus groups, it examines program design and implementation, participation barriers, and factors that could help working parents more readily reach financial independence. Highlights are:

Virtual human services delivery has the potential to improve long-standing disparities in service access and outcomes. This brief highlights emerging lessons from the field, identifying considerations for programs to advance equity across all elements of service delivery. Related Products

Medicaid and the Marketplace are important sources of affordable, comprehensive healthcare coverage for millions of Americans living in rural areas, and the American Rescue Plan bolsters rural coverage options. But challenges in accessing care remain in many rural areas, including provider shortages, infrastructure limitations, and long distances to care.

This Issue Brief analyzes national survey data to discuss demographic characteristics of the LGB+ community, recent trends in insurance coverage for this population, and various challenges and barriers to care faced by the broader LGBTQ+ community.Related Products