This analysis shows that employer-sponsored coverage began declining after 2000 due to an economic downturn that saw rising unemployment, declining family incomes and more workers moving into temporary work, part-time work and other employment arrangements where health benefits were not provided. Employer-sponsored coverage continued to decline after 2003 despite improvements in the economy and slower growth in health care costs. The decline in coverage was due both to falloffs in the share of employees with access to employer insurance and decreasing take-up rates among workers. As a result, the uninsured rate for employees increased, and it also went up for low-income children with access to employer-coverage. Employer coverage is likely to continue to decline as increasing premiums and the souring economy will likely lead more employers to drop coverage. And employees will probably face greater challenges to taking up coverage as they face increasing contribution amounts and growing strains on family budgets. In the absence of other affordable health coverage options, these trends can be expected to result in further growth in the number of uninsured employees.

Report (.pdf)

Vermont’s Choices for Care experiment in long-term services, created through a five-year Medicaid waiver in 2005, was designed to increase access to home and community-based services while reducing the use of institutional services and controlling overall costs. In exchange for agreeing to a federal funding cap, Vermont was able to expand access to community-based services and extend some services to a “moderate need” group for the first time to test the theory that early interventions can be cost-effective and help keep people in community settings. In the three years since, the state has seen a shift of people and money toward community settings, but also the return of waiting lists for some populations. Because of circumstances unique to Vermont, it is unclear how appropriate this waiver approach would be for other states.

Report (.pdf)

This report highlights states’ innovative use of health information technology in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs to improve their ability to reach and enroll eligible children, improve the quality of care for children, increase communications with families, and continue to modernize their programs.

Although many of these efforts are still in their early stages, findings to date indicate improvements in access to care, care coordination, case management, and administrative efficiency. States are pursuing ways to overcome financing and other challenges to getting new health information technology efforts off the ground, but federal leadership and funding is key for continuing to support and advance state Medicaid and SCHIP health information technology efforts.

Report (.pdf)

Executive Summary (.pdf)

This brief is based on a survey conducted this summer by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University to focus on the experiences and challenges facing the lowest paid members of the American workforce.

Low-wage workers rate “getting more affordable health insurance” as the top priority for the federal government to improve people’s financial situation. Sixty-two percent of low-wage workers find it “very” or “somewhat” difficult to afford health care and health insurance.

The Survey of Low-Wage Workers is the 17th in a series generated under this three-way partnership. The partners worked together to pick the survey topics, design the survey instruments, and analyze the results. This telephone poll was conducted from June 18 to July 7, 2008 among 1,350 randomly selected low-wage workers nationwide. The Washington Post is featuring findings from the survey in a series of articles that began August 3 with the most recent article published on October 16.

Survey Brief (.pdf)

This Medicare Part D data spotlight analyzes the premiums charged by the 1,689 stand-alone Medicare Part D plans that will be offered in markets across the country in 2009. The analysis finds premiums charged for Part D plans range widely, from $10.30 per month to $136.80 per month. If current enrollees remain in their current plan for next year, the weighted average monthly premium for PDPs would increase by $7.40 per month, from $29.89 in 2008 to $37.29 in 2009. The data spotlight also looks at premium changes in the stand-alone plans with the highest enrollment this year and shifts in the overall marketplace.

The spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the Medicare Part D drug plans that will be available to beneficiaries in 2009. The analysis was conducted jointed by Jack Hoadley and Jennifer Thompson of Georgetown University, Elizabeth Hargrave of NORC at the University of Chicago, and Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Data Spotlight (.pdf)

This Medicare Part D data spotlight examines the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” in Medicare drug plans available in 2009. While in the gap in coverage, Part D enrollees (other than those receiving low-income subsidies) are required to pay 100 percent of total drug costs until they reach the catastrophic coverage level.

In 2009, nearly all Part D plans have a coverage gap, though one in four plans offer limited coverage in the gap — generally coverage for all or some generic drugs, though some plans also cover some or a few brand-name drugs.

The spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the Medicare Part D drug plans that will be available to beneficiaries in 2009. The analysis was conducted jointed by Jack Hoadley and Jennifer Thompson of Georgetown University, Elizabeth Hargrave of NORC at the University of Chicago, and Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Data Spotlight (.pdf)

This Medicare Part D Data Spotlight focuses on the availability of drug plans for beneficiaries receiving the Part D low-income subsidy in 2009 and changes since 2006. For 2009, fewer than one in five plans qualify for automatic or facilitated enrollment of low-income subsidy beneficiaries, the lowest share since the inception of the Part D benefit. These plans have monthly premiums below a benchmark amount calculated for each region, enabling low-income subsidy beneficiaries to enroll and pay no monthly premium. The number of benchmark plans for 2009 varies greatly across regions, from one in Nevada and two in Arizona to 16 in Wisconsin.

The spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the Medicare Part D drug plans that will be available to beneficiaries in 2009. The analysis was conducted jointed by Jack Hoadley and Laura Summer of Georgetown University, Elizabeth Hargrave of NORC at the University of Chicago, and Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Data Spotlight (.pdf)

To better understand the private plans providing drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries under the Part D benefit, the Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a series of data spotlights analyzing key elements of Medicare’s private drug plans. Each spotlight focuses on a key aspect of the drug plans available to Medicare beneficiaries each year and examines relevant trends since the Medicare drug benefit took effect in 2006.

Medicare Part D 2013 Data Spotlights

Medicare Part D 2012 Data Spotlights

Medicare Part D 2011 Data Spotlights

Medicare Part D 2010 Data Spotlights

Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlights

Medicare Part D 2008 Data Spotlights

This document contains the key findings from the October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,217 adults ages 18 and older, including 1,115 adults who say they are registered to vote, who were interviewed by telephone between October 8 and 13, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points and plus or minus 4 percentage points for the sample of registered voters. For results based on subgroups, the sampling error is somewhat higher.

 Key Findings (.pdf)

The final Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds more people are reporting problems with health care bills, and paying for health care retains a solid hold on the public’s list of their top economic concerns.

About one in three Americans now report their family has had problems paying medical bills in the past year, up from about a quarter saying the same two years ago.  Almost one in five (18%) of Americans report household problems with medical bills amounting to more than $1,000 in the past year.

Nearly half (47%) of the public reports someone in their family skipping pills, postponing  or cutting back on medical care they said they needed in the past year due to the cost of care.  For example, just over one-third say they or a family member put off or postponed needed care and three in ten say they skipped a recommended test or treatment – increases of seven percentage points from last April’s tracking poll which asks the same question.

The October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll:  Election 2008, the eleventh and final in a series designed and analyzed by the Foundation’s public opinion research team, also examines voters’ specific health care issue interests and perceptions of the major presidential candidates’ positions on health care and reform.

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