Issue Briefs and Testimony Related to Health Reform

Issue Briefs Related to Health Reform

This collection of some of our most recent and relevant issue briefs go beyond the basics to provide concise discussions and analyses of key policy topics related to health reform. For a more complete collection of all the Foundation’s health reform resources, click here.

Health Reform Roundtables: Charting A Course Forward

Health Reform Roundtables: Charting A Course Forward is a series of discussions among federal officials, state officials and outside experts that provides a forum to share insights and explores key issues related to implementing a significant expansion of the Medicaid program as part of the new health reform law and coordinating that expansion with the creation of new state-based insurance Exchanges.

Community Health Centers: Opportunities and Challenges of Health Reform
This issue brief examines the role that community health centers will play in implementing health reform and providing access to care for millions of Americans who will gain insurance coverage under the new law.

Health Reform Issues: Key Issues About State Financing and Medicaid
This updated issue brief examines key issues related to state financing and the expansion of the Medicaid program under the new health reform law.

Optimizing Medicaid Enrollment: Perspectives on Strengthening Medicaid’s Reach Under Health Reform
This brief summarizes the views of Medicaid program directors and other experts about the opportunities that health reform presents to optimize Medicaid by strengthening its enrollment and renewal operations and recasting it as an affordable health coverage program for working people and families.

Expanding Medicaid to Low-Income Childless Adults Under Health Reform: Key Lessons From State Experiences

The health reform law will expand Medicaid to millions of low-income adults, including many childless adults who have historically been ineligible for the program, necessitating one of the largest enrollment efforts in the program’s history. This report examines lessons learned to help inform the expansion effort based on past state experience covering childless adults through waiver and state-funded programs.

Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports: Key Changes in the Health Reform Law

This brief examines new opportunities under the health reform law for states to balance their Medicaid long-term care delivery systems by expanding access to Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) programs.

Health Reform and the CLASS Act
This issue brief examines the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a component of health reform that establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living services and supports that is designed to expand options for people who become functionally disabled and require long-term help.

State High-Risk Pools: An Overview
This issue brief provides an overview of the primary components of state high-risk pools, discusses their benefits and challenges, and concludes with a discussion of high-risk pools in national health reform.

Uninsured and Untreated: A Look at Uninsured Adults Who Received No Medical Care for Two Years
This brief profiles uninsured adults with incomes at or below 133 percent of the poverty level who, because of health reform, will be eligible for Medicaid in 2014 based on income. It focuses on those who received no medical care over a two-year period to help assess unmet need.

Financing New Medicaid Coverage Under Health Reform: The Role of the Federal Government and States
This brief examines how the federal government and the states are expected to split responsibility for financing expanded Medicaid coverage under the health reform law.

Issues for Structuring Interim High Risk Pools
This brief examines the role of high-risk pools as a coverage safety net today and reviews key issues involved in implementing a national high risk pool, which would be one of the first provisions to be implemented under pending health reform legislation.

How Will Health Reform Impact Young Adults?
This paper explains the key ways in which the new law will impact young adults ages 19 to 29, and provides a brief overview of current health coverage for this population.

Health Reform and Access to Abortion Coverage

The brief discusses the treatment of coverage for abortion services under the major health reform bills and explores the possible impact of the House- and Senate-passed legislation on public and private coverage for abortion services.

Where Are States Today?: Medicaid and State-Funded Coverage Eligibility Levels for Low-Income Adults
This fact sheet provides a brief overview of low-income adults’ current eligibility for Medicaid and other state-funded coverage programs and a discussion of how this coverage may be impacted by health reform.

Medicaid Beneficiaries and Access to Care
This fact sheet summarizes Medicaid beneficiaries’ experience in obtaining access to care, finding Medicaid compares favorably with private coverage in connecting low-income children and adults with primary and preventive care.

Immigrants’ Health Coverage and Health Reform
This issue brief discusses key questions related to immigrants’ health coverage and health reform, addressing subjects such as how many of the uninsured are non-citizen immigrants and what would happen to coverage for them under current health reform proposals.

Health Reform: Implications for Women’s Access to Coverage and Care
This issue brief highlights key issues for women that arise in the context of health reform, including access to health insurance coverage, health care affordability, scope of benefits, reproductive health and long-term care.

Health Reform and Communities of Color: How might it Affect Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities?
This brief examines some of the key provisions of health reform legislation that are likely to have a significant impact on people of color and also highlights the specific provisions that focus on health disparities.

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The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.