Global Health

These resources help explain the major elements of the new health reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordability Act, as modified by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act.

Summary of New Health Reform Law
Health Reform Implementation Timeline
Summary of Coverage Provisions
Key Changes to Medicare
Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Provisions 
Medicaid and CHIP Implementation Timeline

Explaining Health Care Reform series
This collection of briefs provides an overview of specific elements of the health reform law.

• Questions About the Extension of Dependent Coverage to Age 26
• Questions About the Temporary High-Risk Pool
• Questions About Health Insurance Exchanges
  
• Questions About Health Insurance Subsidies
• Questions About Medicaid’s Role
• Key Changes in the  Medicare Advantage Program
  
• Key Changes to the Medicare Part D Drug Benefit Coverage Gap
• Medicare and the New Independent Payment Advisory Board
• Eligibility And Enrollment Processes For Medicaid, CHIP and Subsidies in the Exchange
• Explaining Health Reform: Benefits and Cost-Sharing for Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries
• Explaining Health Reform: How will the Affordable Care Act affect small businesses and their employees?
  

Glossary of Key Terms in Health Reform

This resource provides simple and straightforward definitions of key terms that will likely be part of the health reform debate.

Primers on Key Health Care Topics and Programs
The Kaiser Family Foundation maintains a number of primers providing overviews of key health care programs and issues: the Uninsured, Health Care Costs, Medicaid, Medicare and Private Health Insurance. 

 

Resources On the Health Reform Debate

These resources highlight key data, information and issues relevant to the debate about health reform that led to the enactment of the reform law in March 2010. 


Explaining Health Care Reform series
These briefs examine specific concepts and issues raised in the reform debate.


• How Might a Reform Plan Be Financed?
• What Is An Employer “Pay-or-Play” Requirement?
  
• What is Health Insurance?
• What is Comparative Effectiveness Research?
• How Do Health Care Costs Vary By Region?

Approaches to Covering the Uninsured: A Guide
This guide includes an overview of different strategies for improving access to health coverage for the nation’s 45 million people without insurance, and how those strategies compliment one another. 

Five Basic Facts on the Uninsured
This brief provides basic facts that explain why so many people lack coverage and how being uninsured affects their health and financial security.

KaiserEDU Tutorials and Issue Modules
KaiserEDU.org, the Foundation's Web site for students, faculty and others interested in learning about health policy, has a number of tutorials and issue modules on health reform topics.