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To provide context for emerging debates about federal actions to address prescription drug costs, this issue brief highlights five key facts about Medicaid prescription drug coverage, payment, and administration.
This issue brief describes recent trends in the number of Medicaid outpatient prescriptions and the spending on those drugs and examines the implications of recent federal actions on future trends.
Exposure to gun violence can have severe adverse effects on the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents, including increased likelihood of depression, PTSD, anxiety, and poor academic performance. This brief explores these impacts in addition to the various ways in which youth are exposed to gun violence, both directly and indirectly.
This brief analyzes the latest youth mortality data from the CDC, finding that nearly 22,000 children and adolescents died by firearm in the past decade. More information on trends over time, type of firearm deaths, and how these deaths vary by demographic and state are available in this brief.
Under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, the federal government negotiates prices with drug companies for certain high-cost drugs covered under Medicare Part B and Part D. This brief provides information about several key aspects of the Medicare drug price negotiation program, with a focus on the 2028 implementation year.
This analysis examines how U.S. health spending compares to health spending in other high-income nations. While the U.S. still spends the most in total dollars, eight OECD nations had a higher percentage increase in per-person health spending in 2024.
This analysis explores trends in how the cost of healthcare affects access to care in the U.S. using National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data. In 2024, about 1 in 6 adults (17%) reported delaying or not getting healthcare due to cost
This brief provides an overview of oral contraception, discusses private insurance and Medicaid coverage, and reviews strategies to promote and expand women’s access to oral contraceptives.
Oral contraceptives are the most commonly used method of reversible contraception in the U.S. In July 2023, the FDA approved Opill, the first daily oral contraceptive pill to become available over the counter (OTC) without a doctor’s prescription. This issue brief provides an overview of OTC oral contraceptives and laws and policies related to insurance coverage.
There was an increase in life expectancy between 2021 and 2023 across all racial and ethnic groups. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people experienced the largest increase in life expectancy of 4.5 years during this time, followed by Hispanic (3.5 years) and Black people (2.8 years).
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