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The Build Back Better Act would make a number of changes to the way people get health insurance and how health care is financed, including by temporarily closing the Medicaid coverage gap.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) gives consumers the right to appeal private health plan claims denials and other adverse decisions, including the incorrect application of cost sharing, although limits apply. This issue brief describes consumer access to appeals and limits on appeal rights that have been adopted through federal regulations.
The “No Surprises Act,” which establishes new federal protections against most surprise out-of-network medical bills when a patient receives out-of-network services during an emergency visit or from a provider at an in-network hospital without advance notice, will take effect next month. A new KFF brief outlines what to expect in 2022.
On KFF’s 21st annual Medicaid budget survey, all responding states reported at least one initiative to expand behavioral health care in Medicaid, including crisis service and other benefit expansions, initiatives to expand telehealth and address equity, and managed care changes.
This brief reviews how race is incorporated into medical care and training and discusses implications for health and health care disparities and efforts to advance health equity.
This data note provides an analysis of COVID-19 vaccination rates among 5-11 year-old children across the states. Overall, we find wide variation in share of children who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine across the states.
A summary of 10 of the major health coverage and financing provisions of the current Build Back Better Act, with discussion of the potential implications for people and the federal budget.
The Build Back Better Act includes several provisions that would lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and private insurance and reduce drug spending by the federal government and private payers. This brief summarizes these provisions and discusses the expected effects on people, program spending, and drug prices and innovation.
This brief examines characteristics of uninsured children in 2020 and discusses how current policy proposals, including outreach efforts, continuous eligibility requirements, and closing the coverage gap, could affect children’s health coverage. Recent efforts to expand coverage for adults could benefit children’s coverage, especially for children in non-expansion states if the coverage gap is filled as proposed by the Build Back Better Act (BBBA).
Some employers announced changes to their paid leave policies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure more workers have access to paid leave and to reduce the risk of workers coming to work sick. This data note presents findings from the 2021 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey on the share of workers who are employed by firms that began offering paid leave benefits or expanded their existing benefits since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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