Healthcare financing

Abstract

As healthcare costs continue to grow worldwide, publicly financed universal coverage and private health insurance systems alike are changing. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), for whom financing is a long-standing obstacle to accessing healthcare, will be impacted by changes to these systems. The World Health Organization notes that affordability is a main reason that people with disabilities do not receive needed healthcare; however, it is widely acknowledged that improving access to care—by, among other solutions, making healthcare affordable—can improve health outcomes. In the United States, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act seeks to offer affordable health insurance to all Americans. This effort, combined with existing private insurance options and long-standing publicly financed insurance options, comprises the means by which Americans, including people with IDD, pay for healthcare. In other parts of the world, universal coverage and hybrids that braid private insurance with publicly financed insurance combine to pay for healthcare for people with IDD. This chapter reviews a number of healthcare financing options that currently exist in the US and abroad, as well as new models that are emerging, and concludes with a set of recommendations appropriate for healthcare providers, leaders in public policy, and people with IDD and their families.