The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
This document contains the full findings and methodology from a Kaiser study featured in Health Affairs that examines the current spending on care for the uninsured and projects additional medical spending if the population had health insurance coverage.
Full Report (.pdf)
This survey by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University provides a detailed look at the real life experiences and views of low-wage workers and assesses their financial challenges, including difficulties obtaining and paying for health care, their views about their financial and job situations and their hopes and expectations for the future.
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 project team included Jon Cohen, The Washington Post director of polling and Jennifer Agiesta, polling analyst; Drew E. Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, Mollyann Brodie, vice president and director of public opinion and survey research, Elizabeth Hamel and Claudia Deane, associate directors, Carolina Gutiérrez, survey analyst, and Sasha Buscho, research assistant; and Robert J. Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health and the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and John M. Benson, managing director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program in the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Washington Post articles:Hovering Above Poverty, Grasping for Middle ClassObama Leads, Pessimism Reigns Among Key GroupClinging to Dreams of a Better LifeLife’s Basics More of a Stretch
Survey Brief (.pdf)
Toplines (.pdf)
Read the Foundation’s more recent study on the impact of the Part D coverage gap, using claims data from 2008 and 2009.
This study quantifies the number of Medicare Part D plan enrollees in 2007 who reached a gap in their prescription drug coverage known as the “doughnut hole,” as well as the changes in beneficiaries’ use of medications and out-of-pocket spending after they reached that gap. The analysis excludes beneficiaries who receive low-income subsidies because they do not face a gap in coverage under their Medicare drug plan.
This study of Part D prescription drug utilization finds that one in four (26%) Part D enrollees who filled any prescriptions in 2007 reached the coverage gap. This also includes 22 percent who remained in the gap for the remainder of the year, and four percent who ultimately received catastrophic coverage. Applying this estimate to the entire population of Part D enrollees, the analysis suggests that about 3.4 million beneficiaries (14% of all Part D enrollees) reached the coverage gap and faced the full cost of their prescriptions in 2007.
Conducted jointly by Jack Hoadley of Georgetown University, Elizabeth Hargrave of NORC at the University of Chicago, and Juliette Cubanski and Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation, the study found evidence of patients changing their use of prescription drugs when they are required to pay the full cost of medications in the coverage gap. Across eight classes of drugs examined, used to treat a variety of relatively common chronic conditions, 15 percent of Part D enrollees who reached the gap stopped their drug therapy for that condition, five percent switched to another medication in the class, and one percent reduced the number of drugs they were taking in the class.
This study analyzes retail pharmacy claims data, based on 4.5 million Medicare beneficiaries in Part D plans in 2007, the first year that most people would be enrolled in a Part D plan for a full calendar year. The analysis is based on 2007 data from IMS Health’s Longitudinal Prescription Drug Database, which includes prescription drug information that represents half of all retail prescriptions filled in the U.S.
This comprehensive Kaiser Family Foundation survey of the experiences of New Orleans residents reveals a still-struggling population that gives very mixed reviews in key areas of the recovery efforts. Most residents feel forgotten by the nation and its leaders yet are still optimistic about their city’s future.
Overall, the study finds about four in 10 residents who lived through the storm report that their lives are still very or somewhat disrupted — only marginally better than the share who reported this level of disruption in Fall 2006.
Designed and analyzed by Foundation researchers, the survey was fielded house-to-house and by telephone in Spring 2008 among 1,294 residents of Orleans Parish. The survey is the second of at least three that the Foundation will conduct to track residents’ experiences and views as the city rebuilds after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaches that devastated huge sections in August 2005. By providing an over-time assessment of residents’ experiences, priorities, goals and concerns, the Foundation hopes to give people a continuing chance to report on how the recovery effort is affecting them, to inform leaders of the public’s priorities and to maintain national attention on the efforts to rebuild New Orleans.
Executive Summary and Full Report
Low-Income Adults in New Orleans in 2008: Who Are They and How Are They Faring?
This chartpack provides key findings from the second comprehensive Kaiser Family Foundation survey of New Orleans residents’ experiences and views as the city rebuilds after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaches that devastated huge sections in August 2005. By providing an over-time assessment of residents’ experiences, priorities, goals and concerns, the Foundation hopes to give people a continuing chance to report on how the recovery effort is affecting them, to inform leaders of the public’s priorities, and to maintain national attention on the efforts to rebuild New Orleans.
Designed and analyzed by Foundation researchers, the new survey was fielded house to house and by telephone in Spring 2008 among 1,294 residents of Orleans Parish.
Chartpack (.pdf)
This comprehensive Kaiser Family Foundation survey is the second of at least three that the Foundation will conduct to track New Orleans residents’ experiences and views as the city rebuilds after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaches that devastated huge sections in August 2005. By providing an over-time assessment of residents’ experiences, priorities, goals, and concerns, the Foundation hopes to give people a continuing chance to report on how the recovery effort is affecting them, to inform leaders of the public’s priorities, and to maintain national attention on the efforts to rebuild New Orleans.
Designed and analyzed by Foundation researchers, the new survey was fielded house to house and by telephone in Spring 2008 among 1,294 residents of Orleans Parish.
Full Report (.pdf)
Executive Summary (.pdf)
Findings (.pdf)
Appendix A: Demographics of Orleans Parish Adult Population (.pdf)
Appendix B: Creating Aggregate Problem Measures (.pdf)
The Global HIV Prevention Working Group issued a report, “Behavior Change for HIV Prevention: (Re) Considerations for the 21st Century.”
The Global HIV Prevention Working Group is a panel of nearly 50 leading public health experts, clinicians, biomedical, and behavioral researchers, and people affected by HIV/AIDS, convened by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Executive Summary (.pdf)
Final Report (.pdf)
International Health Journalism Fellowship Project: Russia/Ukraine
Recent Project Events
Kyiv, Ukraine, Training program – On the Frontline of an Epidemic: Reporting on HIV/AIDS in Mass Media, April 2007 (.pdf) Kyiv, Ukraine, Reporting on ARV- treatment in Mass Media, March 2007 (.pdf)
Moscow, Russia, Training for Journalists and Representatives of AIDS-service Organizations, November 2006 (.pdf) Kyiv, Ukraine, Journalism Training Workshop in the Coverage of HIV/AIDS, June 2006 (.pdf) Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, HIV/AIDS Reporting in Mass Media Workshop, April 2006 (.pdf)
Kyiv, Ukraine, Workshop for Ukrainian Journalists on the Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS, November 2005 (.pdf) Kyiv, Ukraine, First National Workshop on HIV/AIDS Reporting for Journalists in Ukraine, October 2005 (.pdf) Kyiv, Ukraine, Informational Briefing for Editors, September 2005 (.pdf) Perm, Russia, Training for journalists and representatives of governmental and non-governmental AIDS-service organizations, August 2005 (.pdf)
Moscow, Russia, Briefing for Journalists, October 2004 (.pdf) Moscow, Russia, Journalist Training Session, March 2004 (.pdf)
<< International Health Journalism Fellowship Project: Russia main page
About the Project
The Kaiser Family Foundation and Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS joined to create the . The goal of the Media Fellowships Project was to encourage substantive coverage of the health, social, economic, political and cultural implications of HIV/AIDS and associated health problems, as well as policies and programs to address HIV/AIDS in Russia and Ukraine.
The program selected journalists to undertake individual projects that focused on Russia or Ukraine. These were all
Projects
Project Events
Partners
Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA) is an independent, non-governmental organization that leverages the political, civic, scientific, and economic resources of North American, European, and Eurasian partners to combat the rapid and devastating spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia, Ukraine and neighboring countries.
For more information regarding the International Health Journalism Fellowship Project in Russia/Ukraine please email mediafellows@kff.org.
About the Project
While the Foundation has worked in Southern Africa for nearly 20 years, the bulk of the International Health Journalism Fellowship Project in Africa’s current focus is on the Kaiser/CNN Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa, which was launched in 2006. The award, presented as part of the prestigious CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards, is part of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s global effort to increase and sustain media coverage of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, to improve the breadth and quality of HIV/AIDS reporting, and to increase access by journalists worldwide to the most current information on HIV/AIDS. It recognizes reporting by and African journalist on HIV/AIDS in Africa that illuminates the broad impact of the epidemic on individuals, communities and nations, and the resilience of the African response to the epidemic. In advance of the awards ceremony each year, Kaiser organizes an intensive workshop on covering HIV/AIDS for the 15 finalists for its award.
“Pain in my heart” a full length documentary by Mr. Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono of Zimbabwe won the 2008 Kaiser/CNN Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa and 2008 CNN African Journalist of the Year.
To learn more about the award and how to apply for it, see the CNN/MultiChoice African Journalist Awards website.
The History of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Work in Africa
The Foundation’s work in South Africa focused in the early 90’s focused mainly on improving the public health system overall. However, the challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have come to dominate the Foundation’s more recent work there. Over the past 15 years the Foundation has worked extensively with the South African media to increase both the quantity and quality of media coverage of health and development issues affecting the poor sectors of the population, and also to increase media attention to HIV/AIDS. Building on the success of our efforts to engage South African editors and reporters in these issues, the Foundation also organized a series of traveling seminars to countries throughout southern Africa for journalists from the U.S. and Europe.
In October 2005, Kaiser, together with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, co-convened media leaders from over 20 different African countries in an historic summit in Johannesburg, under the auspices of the GMAI. Out of this gathering, the Africa Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS was launched with the main purpose of making HIV/AIDS a central part of broadcast media corporations’ business strategies and programming.