As Tough Times Wane, States Act to Improve Medicaid Coverage and Quality: Results from a 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008

The annual 50-state survey of state officials on Medicaid and state budget actions reports enrollment in Medicaid declined for the first time in nearly a decade. The 0.5 percent enrollment decline in fiscal year 2007 was driven primarily by two factors. States reported that the new citizenship documentation requirements were causing significant delays in processing applications, affecting mostly individuals already eligible for the program. State officials also cited the good economy and lower unemployment for reducing enrollment. Faced with an improving economy, 42 states expect to expand coverage to the uninsured in the next year.

Executive Summary (.pdf)

Full Report (.pdf)

This report from The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Task Force on HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with the Kaiser Family Foundation, examines the current global HIV prevention response by the United States under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and outlines challenges to opportunities for heightening a focus on HIV prevention in the next phase of the U.S. response.

Report (.pdf)

These toplines present detailed survey results from an October 2007 survey conducted jointly by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health on the public’s views and opinions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the pending legislation surrounding its reauthorization.

Toplines (.pdf)

This summary provides an overview of the results of an October 2007 survey conducted jointly by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health on the public’s views and opinions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the pending legislation surrounding its reauthorization.

Summary (.pdf)

Why Did Medicaid Spending Decline in 2006? A Detailed Look at Program Spending and Enrollment, 2000-2006

This issue brief finds that Medicaid spending declined for the first time in the program’s 40-plus year history in Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2006, falling by 0.2 percent. The two major factors that underlie the 2006 decline, in addition to a more limited effect of the slowdown in per enrollee spending growth for a few key services, were the 2005 Medicare Modernization Act’s creation of a new Medicare drug benefit that shifted the cost of prescription drugs for dual eligibles from Medicaid and a dramatic reduction in enrollment growth.

Issue Brief (.pdf)

The to extend the SCHIP program was passed with bi-partisan support in the Congress and vetoed by the President on October 3, 2007. This brief provides an overview of SCHIP and of key provisions in CHIPRA.

Issue Brief (.pdf)

This October 2007 survey conducted jointly by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health examines the public’s views and opinions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the pending legislation surrounding its reauthorization. The survey assesses the public’s familiarity with the SCHIP debate, whether or not they support the renewal and expansion of the program, and who they believe should be eligible for health coverage through SCHIP. NPR is reporting findings from the poll in its coverage of the SCHIP reauthorization on its news magazines Morning Edition, The Bryant Park Project and All Things Considered.

The survey is part of a series of projects about health-related issues by NPR, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Representatives of the three organizations worked together to develop the survey questionnaire and to analyze the results, with NPR maintaining editorial control over its broadcasts on the surveys.

The poll was conducted after President Bush vetoed legislation to reauthorize and expand SCHIP. A nationally representative sample of 1,527 adults were interviewed from Oct. 8 to Oct. 13. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample.

Summary

Chartpack

Toplines

This chartpack presents key findings from an October 2007 survey conducted jointly by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health on the public’s views and opinions of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and the pending legislation surrounding its reauthorization.

Chartpack (.pdf)

The increased use of U.S. hospital emergency departments has received considerable attention from both the health care community and policymakers in recent years. This analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines the demographic and health characteristics of people who frequently visit the emergency room to help understand why their utilization is so high.

Using data from the nationally representative Medical Expenditures Panel Survey, the analysis finds that high emergency department users (those who made four or more visits during a two-year period) are more likely to be in poor health and have higher anticipated needs for health care—specifically the elderly, the poor, and those living with chronic conditions. The findings also reveal that these individuals do not obtain care exclusively in the emergency room, but also use outpatient services at a greater rate than people who rarely visit emergency departments.

In terms of health insurance coverage, the analysis finds that the uninsured are not more likely to frequently visit emergency departments than those who are insured. High emergency department users are far more likely to have Medicare or Medicaid coverage, likely due to the poor health and age of these populations, whereas the majority of low users and non users are privately insured.

Issue Brief (.pdf)

Diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death in the US in 2004 and is among the top 10 most expensive medical conditions on the country. Although more than one in seven diabetics in America rely on the Medicaid program for their health coverage, little is known about who they are or what the program spends on their behalf. This brief provides a first look at what Medicaid spends on the nearly 2 million enrollees with diabetes. Included among the findings is that the six percent of enrollees with diabetes accounted for 16 percent of total Medicaid spending.

Issue Brief (.pdf)