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Using health insurer financial data for 2023, we find that in 2023, per enrollee gross margins were highest in the Medicare Advantage market, and medical loss ratios were lowest in the individual insurance market. Across most markets, gross margins have been relatively stable in recent years.
On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a longstanding legal precedent that required federal courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretation when statutes are ambiguous. The decision will shift many policy decisions from federal agencies to federal judges, with implications for health policy that will reverberate for years to come. This issue brief examines the decision and assesses what’s ahead.
Medicaid programs are a major source of coverage for people of color and a potential mechanism to address racial health disparities. This issue brief provides insight into ways Medicaid can mitigate racial health disparities, how coverage may vary by race and ethnicity, and other Medicaid initiatives states pursuing to address racial disparities in health and health care.
Eligibility policies for seniors and people with disabilities vary across states, but states made similarly wide-ranging changes to streamline renewal processes for these enrollees. KFF’s Survey of Medicaid Financial Eligibility & Enrollment Policies for Seniors & People with Disabilities was conducted in March 2024 by KFF and Watts Health Policy Consulting.
This brief reviews the proposed revisions to the World Health Organization-based agreement known as the International Health Regulations (IHR), and the implications for the U.S. WHO member states are expected to adopt the revised IHR at the World Health Assembly meeting this year. The U.S. government has been a leading proponent of many of the expected revisions to the IHR. In this analysis we also evaluate some of the criticisms of the revisions to the IHR.
This brief examines key facts around proposals to align Medicare payments for outpatient services across care settings, otherwise known as “site-neutral payment reforms.”
Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans rarely cover GLP-1 drugs approved solely for obesity treatment, according to a an analysis of 2024 federal plan data.
This analysis examines how people of color fare compared to White people across 64 measures of health, health care, and social determinants of health using the most recent data available from federal surveys and administrative sets as well as the 2023 KFF Survey on Racism, Discrimination, and Health.
This issue brief examines the varying exceptions (for life, health, rape/incest, and fatal fetal anomalies) in state abortion bans and restrictions and the complications that arise when pregnant people attempt to access abortion care under these exceptions.
This analysis details how ACA marketplace premiums changed by county from 2023 to 2024, after taking into account expanded subsidies available under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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