It also stresses the importance of educating families about appropriate emergency room use and offering after-hours care in alternative health care settings. Each state can select its own approach to providing health care coverage, and these choices have important implications for access to care.
Continuity is also crucial.
Access to care is interrupted when insurance coverage is sporadic, with gaps in insurance or transitions among programs. Mathematica, one of the nation's leading independent research firms, conducts policy research and surveys for federal and state governments, foundations, and private-sector clients. The employee-owned firm, with offices in Princeton, N.J., Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., has conducted some of the most important studies of welfare, education, employment, health care, nutrition, and early childhood programs and policies in the United States. Mathematica strives to improve public well-being by bringing the highest standards of quality, objectivity, and excellence to bear on the provision of information collection and analysis to its clients. Mathematica is the registered trademark of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.