in poor outcomes of care, especially for acute life-threatening illnesses. Although
UCS patients had longer hospital stays than CSMBS patients for coronary heart
disease interventions, and in-hospital mortality was three percentage points
higher, these differences may be because UCS patients had inadequate
continuity of care over the long period of their illness. High mortality due to
haemorrhagic stroke among hospitalized UCS patients and rapid progression of
chronic kidney disease in ambulatory diabetic UCS patients are likely to reflect
inadequate measures to prevent complications.
As approximately 50% of the 47 million UCS members have lower socioeconomic
and education status than CSMBS members, this is an important factor to allow
for when evaluating health outcomes. The recent creation of disease registries
for thalassemia and end-stage renal disease to track trends in care and mortality
will provide an opportunity in the future to assess evidence on mortality outcomes
and five-year survival rates across the three public health insurance schemes.