Commentary-Improving Federal Health Data: The Essential Partnership between Researcher and Policy Maker

摘要

The two papers by Blpwett and Davern (2006) and Kenney, Holahan, and Nichols (2006) in the special section of this issue discuss the collection of large representative samples to monitor health, health care, and coverage of the population from the perspective of health policy researchers whose primary focus is at the state level. I approach this issue, not only as a health policy researcher, but as a former federal policy maker who was responsible for recommending to the Secretary of Health and Human Services how much of an investment the Department should make in federal health data collection and what type of information it should collect regarding health insurance coverage, spending, and access in the future. My goal is to provide the reader with an understanding of how federal policy makers view the relative importance and usefulness of federal health data collection and how these perceptions have influenced data collection to date and are likely to influence its prospects in the future.