Public Insurance as a Platform for Health Innovation: Global and Local Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Healthcare focuses on how public health insurance systems, such as Medicaid in the United States, serve as platforms for innovation and cross-sector collaboration.

Medicaid covers over 85 million people in the U.S. and offers lessons relevant to global health programs tackling similar challenges. We seek contributions that highlight real-world strategies for delivering care, addressing social determinants of health, and improving outcomes for low-income and vulnerable populations.

We especially encourage submissions from international authors and research teams in countries with large-scale government health programs, such as China, India, Brazil, South Africa, and European nations, who wish to share lessons, innovations, or challenges relevant to global audiences.

Topics of Interest:

• Innovative healthcare delivery models in public insurance or public health systems
  Mobile care units for Medicaid enrollees in rural areas, community health worker integration in primary care teams within Brazil’s SUS system, and virtual care hubs for maternal health in India’s public programs.
• Responses to chronic disease and preventable conditions in public insurance programs
  Medicaid-led hypertension control initiatives; national diabetes prevention programs in China; tobacco cessation benefits rolled out through Thailand’s Universal Coverage Scheme.
• Value-based insurance design in public insurance programs
  U.S. Medicaid pay-for-performance models; bundled payment pilots for maternity care in state Medicaid agencies; chronic disease bundled payments in Germany’s sickness funds.
• Workforce challenges and strategies in public insurance programs
  Recruiting and retaining behavioral health providers in U.S. Medicaid; rural provider incentives in Australia’s Medicare system; training and deployment of village doctors in China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme.
• Quality improvement efforts led by public insurance programs
  Medicaid managed care performance dashboards; cancer screening quality indicators in South Korea’s National Health Insurance; infection control initiatives in public hospitals in Kenya.
• Integration of health and social services (e.g., housing, food, employment) for better health and overall well-being
  Housing First pilots funded by state Medicaid waivers; Japan’s long-term care insurance integration with family caregiver support; Colombia’s SISBEN system linking income, health, and education data.
• Digital health, data systems, and governance innovations relevant to low-income populations
  Medicaid dashboards for real-time care coordination; use of AI in fraud detection in India’s Ayushman Bharat program; mobile health record systems for displaced populations.
• International comparisons with Medicaid or Medicaid-like programs
  Comparative studies of Medicaid and China’s Urban-Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance; evaluations of single-payer systems and their approach to low-income populations; cross-national studies of wait times and access in public health programs.
• Regional or local government implementation strategies for improving healthcare services and accessibility
  State-level Medicaid maternal health initiatives in the U.S.; city-led vaccination campaigns funded through Brazil’s decentralized SUS structure; county-based behavioral health reforms in the U.K.’s NHS.
• Policy reforms in public insurance programs
  Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act; universal health coverage legislation in Thailand; regulatory reforms to reduce out-of-pocket costs in Mexico’s Seguro Popular.

We welcome original research, implementation studies, program evaluations, and well-referenced perspective pieces.

Submit your manuscript to Healthcare and contribute to this global dialog on public health system innovation.

Prof. Dr. Christopher R. Cogle
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• medicaid
• public health insurance
• healthcare delivery innovation
• social determinants of health
• value-based care
• health policy reform
• international health systems
• public-sector innovation
• cross-sector collaboration
• government-funded healthcare
• digital health
• low-income populations
• comparative health policy
• health system governance
• chronic disease prevention
• global public health
• managed care
• health services research
• implementation science