2008 Update on Consumers’ Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information – Summary & Chartpack

This summary and chartpack provides an updated examination of consumers’ views on health care quality information reveals major challenges remain in providing the public with comparative quality information and encouraging its use. The 2008 Update on Consumers’ Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information is based on polling conducted in August among a randomly selected nationally representative sample of 1,517 respondents 18 years of age and older.

Summary & Chartpack (.pdf)

Florida Medicaid Reform Waiver: Early Findings and Current Status

This policy brief provides an overview of the Florida Medicaid reform and a summary of available research findings to date from various evaluators of the program.

It was issued at the same time as a separate Health Affairs article highlighting findings from Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2006-2007 Survey of Florida Medicaid Beneficiaries. The Foundation, in collaboration with the Urban Institute and the University of Florida, is conducting a follow-up survey in Florida to continue to track the experiences of beneficiaries in the reform program.

Policy Brief (.pdf)

2008 Update on Consumers’ Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information – Toplines

These toplines provide complete survey questions and findings on the updated examination of consumers’ views on health care quality information reveals major challenges remain in providing the public with comparative quality information and encouraging its use. The 2008 Update on Consumers’ Views of Patient Safety and Quality Information is based on polling conducted in August among a randomly selected nationally representative sample of 1,517 respondents 18 years of age and older.

Toplines (.pdf)

As part of the September Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, the Foundation asked the public what their view was of the recent evacuation process when Hurricane Gustav hit the Louisiana coast on September 1. New Orleans residents and the government bodies that aided them in their evacuation receive high marks for that effort from the American public. Asked to compare what they saw with the response to Hurricane Katrina, two thirds of Americans say that the federal government seems more prepared to handle a major hurricane now than it did in 2005. In addition, more than seven in ten say Louisiana’s state government and New Orleans’ city government and its residents also seem better prepared.

 Survey Brief: A Note on Hurricane Gustav (.pdf)

This document contains the topline from the September Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,207 adults (including 1,081 who say they were registered to vote), who were interviewed by telephone between September 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 all registered voters. For results based on subgroups, the sampling error is higher.

Full Topline (.pdf)

This document contains the key findings from the September Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,207 adults (including 1,081 who say they were registered to vote), who were interviewed by telephone between September 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 all registered voters. For results based on subgroups, the sampling error is higher.

 Key Findings (.pdf)

The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds that health care has crept up in importance as an election issue in recent months among a key voting group: political independents, who ranked it as highly as Democrats did in this poll.  Roughly one in four (26%) independents rank health care as one of the top issues they would “most like to hear the presidential candidates talk about.” Health care’s importance has risen among independents by eight percentage points since April.  At the same time, health care has dropped even further down Republicans’ priority list (now mentioned by 11%, a new low) and stayed roughly stable among Democrats (25%).

Amidst the collapse of some of the country’s financial institutions and the subsequent government interventions, the economy overwhelmingly ranks as one of the top issues voters want to hear about from the candidates, claiming a majority among independents (54%) as well as among Republicans (55%) and Democrats (59%). Iraq remains an important election issue for one in four voters overall (25%) and health care has returned to third place (21%) as gas prices have declined slightly as an issue (down from 25% in June to 19%). It should be noted that the poll reflects responses from September 8 through 13, before the worst of the financial crisis became public.

Recent economic events are having a real impact on Americans’ pocketbooks: More than six in ten say they are experiencing at least one “serious problem” from a list of specific economic challenges, up slightly from last month (63%, up from 58%).  The number of Americans reporting a serious problem “paying for health care and health insurance” rose six percentage points from just one month ago and now stands at 30 percent.

The September poll, the tenth in a series designed and analyzed by the Foundation’s public opinion research team, also examines the voters’ specific health care issue interests and perceptions of the major presidential candidates’ positions on health care and reform.

• Key Findings
• Topline
• Survey Brief: A Note on Hurricane Gustav

Health care has been an important issue in the 2008 presidential campaign and the candidates have staked out positions on key health care issues. Both major party candidates have developed comprehensive health care reform proposals addressing health coverage and access, rising health care costs and health care quality.

The side-by-side comparison available here focuses on important health care issues not necessarily addressed in the candidates’ health care reform proposals. It was prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation with the assistance of Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., and it allows users to compare the candidates proposals and positions on a range of health care issues. The comparisons are based on information compiled from the candidates’ Web sites, speeches and campaign debates. When we were unable to find a public statement from a candidate on a particular issue, we indicated this with “campaign has not addressed.” Prior to posting, the campaigns were given the opportunity to review and comment on the content of this side-by-side.

Comparison of Both Candidates (.pdf) Sen. John McCain (.pdf) Sen. Barack Obama (.pdf)

For a detailed comparison of the candidates’ health reform plans, see the health reform side-by-side.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, now President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain announced a number of policy proposals and positions related to global health and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, both globally and domestically. This document summarizes those positions as staked out during the presidential campaign. It is adapted from the side-by-side comparisons examining the positions of the presidential candidates on these issues.

Issue Spotlight (.pdf)

As states finalized Medicaid policy decisions for fiscal year 2009, they faced a dramatically different situation than the prior year. At the start of state fiscal year 2008, the economy was generally strong and many states were restoring cuts from the last economic downturn and moving forward with Medicaid improvements and expansions to cover more low-income uninsured individuals. A year later, over half of all states faced significant budget shortfalls and slower than anticipated state revenue growth. For some states, plans to expand Medicaid were put on hold as states struggled to allocate funding and balance their budgets. Despite the budget crunch, few states took significant actions to cut Medicaid. During the last economic downturn from 2001 to 2004, most of the major Medicaid restrictions came later in the downturn cycle, not at the very beginning.

The Medicaid program provides health coverage and long-term care support services to 59 million individuals. Medicaid is administered by the states within broad federal guidelines, but financing is shared by the states and the federal government. During an economic downturn, unemployment rises and puts upward pressure on Medicaid enrollment and therefore Medicaid spending, as individuals lose employer sponsored coverage and incomes decline. At the same time, increases in unemployment have a negative impact on state revenues making it even more difficult for states to pay for Medicaid spending increases.

For the eighth consecutive year, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) and Health Management Associates (HMA) conducted a survey of Medicaid officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to track trends in Medicaid spending, enrollment and policy initiatives. This report presents findings for state fiscal years 2008 and 2009.