Health Care Reform
An expansion of health care coverage in California must be paired with an expansion of safety net health care providers to guarantee access to services, researchers wrote in a policy brief by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
The brief found that health care access problems would persist if policymakers opt to pursue only one of the two approaches -- expanded health insurance coverage or increased primary health care providers.
The authors concluded that additional public policies or programs are needed to meet a growing demand for health care services by newly insured residents. The authors recommend financial incentives to encourage specialists to contract with primary care clinics and health centers (Roby et al., UCLA Health Policy Research Brief, August 2007).