Research Roundup: Beverage Tax In Mexico; Health Care Access Survey; State Marketplaces

Health Affairs: In Mexico, Evidence Of Sustained Consumer Response Two Years After Implementing A Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax
Mexico implemented a 1 peso per liter excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages on January 1, 2014, and a previous study found a 6 percent reduction in purchases of taxed beverages in 2014. In this study we estimated changes in beverage purchases for 2014 and 2015. We used store purchase data for 6,645 households from January 2012 to December 2015. ... Purchases of taxed beverages decreased 5.5 percent in 2014 and 9.7 percent in 2015, yielding an average reduction of 7.6 percent over the study period. Households at the lowest socioeconomic level had the largest decreases in purchases of taxed beverages in both years. ... Findings from Mexico may encourage other countries to use fiscal policies to reduce consumption of unhealthy beverages. (Cochero et al., 2/22)

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report/CDC: Surveillance for Health Care Access and Health Services Use, Adults Aged 18–64 Years — Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, United States, 2014
This report summarizes 2014 BRFSS [Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System] data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia on health care access and use of selected [clinical preventive services]. ... The findings ... indicate substantial variations in health insurance coverage; other health care access measures; and use of CPS .... In 2014, health insurance coverage, having a usual source of care, having a routine checkup, and not experiencing unmet health care need because of cost were higher among adults living below the poverty level (i.e., household income <100% of FPL) in states that expanded Medicaid than in states that did not. Similarly, estimates of breast and cervical cancer screening and influenza vaccination were higher among adults living below the poverty level in states that expanded Medicaid than in states that did not. (Okoro et al., 2/23)

Pediatrics: Pediatric Resident Burnout And Attitudes Toward Patients
Burnout occurs in up to 75% of resident physicians. Our study objectives were to: (1) determine the prevalence of burnout, and (2) examine the association between burnout and self-reported patient care attitudes and behaviors among pediatric residents. ... A total of 39% of respondents ... endorsed burnout. Residents with burnout had significantly greater odds ... of reporting suboptimal patient care attitudes and behaviors, including: discharging patients to make the service more manageable ... not fully discussing treatment options or answering questions ..., making treatment or medication errors ..., ignoring the social or personal impact of an illness ..., and feeling guilty about how a patient was treated. (Baer et al., 2/23)

The Kaiser Family Foundation: Pre-ACA Market Practices Provide Lessons For ACA Replacement Approaches
One of the biggest changes that the ACA made to the non-group insurance market was to eliminate consideration by insurers of a person’s health or health history in enrollment and rating decisions. ... Proposals for replacing the ACA such as Rep. Tom Price’s Empowering Patients First Act and Speaker Paul Ryan’s “A Better Way” policy paper would repeal these insurance market rules, moving back towards pre-ACA standards where insurers generally had more leeway to use individual health in enrollment and rating for non-group coverage. ... [This discussion] focuses on some of the issues faced by people with health issues in the pre-ACA non-group insurance market. These pre-ACA insurance practices highlight some of the challenges in providing access and stable coverage for people and some of the issues that any ACA replacement plan will need to address. (Claxton, Levitt and Pollitz, 2/16)

Brookings: How Has Obamacare Impacted State Health Care Marketplaces?
[O]ur five states had four years of experience in the open enrollment periods from 2014 through 2017. The states array themselves in a continuum of apparent success in enhancing and maintaining competition among insurers. California and Michigan appear to have had success in nurturing insurer competition, in at least the urban areas of their states. Florida, North Carolina, and Texas were less successful. This divergence is recent, however. As recently as the 2015 and 2016 open enrollment periods, all of the states had what appeared to be promising, if not always robust, insurance competition. Large changes occurred in the run-up to the 2017 open enrollment period. (Morrisey et al., 2/9)

In news coverage of other recent research:

CNN: Chronic Knee Pain Eased With The Help Of Skype
Exercise, an online pain-coping skills program and Skype sessions with a physiotherapist helped relieve patients' chronic knee pain, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. ... The new study was designed to investigate "the efficacy of a combined internet delivered treatment package including education, Skype-delivered exercise physiotherapy and an Internet-based interactive pain-coping skills training program," said Kim Bennell, lead author of the study and a research physiotherapist and professor at the University of Melbourne. (Scutti, 2/20)