Fact Sheet (.pdf)

This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a detailed side-by-side comparison of the prescription drug provisions of the House and Senate Medicare proposals, as passed on June 27, 2003. Along with these provisions, the side-by-side compares the major provisions relating to the role of private health plans in Medicare. This document includes a more in-depth description of the bills, which were previously summarized in publication #6095, which is also available on the Foundation?s website. We will continue to update this side-by-side to reflect the Conference Agreement.

A one-page summary of the bills is also provided.

• Report
• Executive Summary: One-page summary

This paper produces alternative estimates of the numbers of uninsured and explores the distribution of the duration of uninsured spells for people who lacked coverage at some time during a 12-month period.

• Policy Brief
• Link to fact sheet, Lack of Coverage: A Long-Term Problem for Most Uninsured

loveLife: South Africa’s National HIV Prevention Program for Youth

At the current rate of infection, South African teenagers have a 50% chance of contracting HIV over the course of their lives. Half of South Africa’s new HIV infections occur before the age of 25. Relatively modest changes in adolescent sexual behaviour could substantially curtail the HIV epidemic and there are hopeful signs that perhaps the worst-case projections for the scale of the HIV epidemic in South Africa may yet be averted.

loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for youth, was launched in September 1999, by a consortium of leading South African public health organisations in partnership with a coalition of more than 100 community-based organisations, the South African government, major South African media groups and private foundations.

loveLife combines a highly visible sustained national multi-media HIV education and awareness campaign with countrywide adolescent friendly service development in government clinics, and a national network of outreach and support programmes for youth.

loveLife is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to youth behaviour change that implements, on an unprecedented scale, the international experience of the past 20 years – combining well-established public health techniques with innovative marketing approaches to promote healthy AIDS-free living among South African teenagers.

The Foundation runs the largest public opinion research program in health. It undertakes original research on the public’s attitudes towards health and social policy issues. Working independently—or in partnership with major national media organizations and academic partners—the Foundation examines Americans’ knowledge and beliefs on major issues and challenges in order to amplify the public’s voice in national debates. In addition, the Foundation monitors coverage of health and health care issues across local and national media to better understand the role of the media in informing Americans on key health and policy issues.

Public Opinion and Survey Research Publications

Headquarters2400 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA 94025 phone: (650) 854-9400 fax: (650) 854-4800

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The Foundation conducts research concerning the relationship between entertainment media and health, with a special focus on children and media. The purpose of the research is to provide data to help inform policymakers, journalists, the research community, healthcare providers, the media industry, and the public.

Major research projects include such topics as how teens use the Internet for health information; the amount of time children of all ages spend watching TV, playing video games, using computers, and reading; sexual messages on television; how health policy issues are portrayed on TV’s medical dramas; what viewers learn from health information in entertainment shows; the role of media in childhood obesity; and the impact of media-based public health campaigns. The Foundation also studies public policies on related media topics, including public service advertising on television, TV ratings, the V-Chip, and the impact of Internet filtering.

Program for the Study of Media and Health Publications

Children, Health, and the Media: Fact Sheet SeriesAccess a series of fact sheets that pull together the most relevant research on such issues as TV violence, teens online, media ratings, and children and video games.

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The Foundation’s work in HIV/AIDS policy seeks to provide the latest information, research, and analysis on the major domestic and global HIV/AIDS policy issues. This includes analysis and monitoring of: key epidemic trends, global and domestic spending on HIV/AIDS, the major programs that provide prevention, care, and treatment to people at risk for and living with HIV/AIDS, public opinion about HIV/AIDS, and highlighting the impact of the epidemic on those populations and regions of the U.S. and the world that have been most affected, including young people, women, and minority communities.

The Foundation is also engaged in many other HIV-related activities, including:

• Public education campaigns with media partners
• loveLife, a public education campaign in South Africa
• Journalist training program and mini-fellowships for HIV/AIDS reporting

HIV Policy Publications

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The Health Care Marketplace Project provides information and analysis about the health care market, including trends in health insurance, health care costs, and health care services. The Project focuses specifically on trends in employer-sponsored health insurance; how health care costs affect individuals and employers; the prescription drug industry, including spending, utilization, and advertising; private health insurance, including industry trends, consumer protections, and the individual insurance market; malpractice insurance; and analysis of policy proposals relating to health insurance reform, including using the tax system to subsidize the purchase of private health insurance.

The Health Care Marketplace Project Publications

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The Foundation partners with media organizations and other organizations in both the U.S. and internationally to develop multi-faceted public education campaigns on important health issues. A particular focus of the Foundation’s Entertainment Media Partnerships is on reaching young people with information about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Our media partnerships combine targeted public service messages with longer-form special programming or editorial and other forms of outreach. Free informational resources are provided through toll-free hotlines and/or websites that reach millions of young people. The Foundation works collaboratively with its media partners providing expert substantive guidance on all products.

The Foundation’s decade-long work in this field includes ongoing partnerships with many of the leading media companies in this country: KNOW HIV/AIDS with Viacom and the CBS Corporation; think:hiv and think:sexual health with MTV(and Staying Alive with MTV International); Rap it Up with BET; and Enterate/Protegate with Univision.

Internationally, the Foundation is working in Africa, the Caribbean, India and Russia to help develop national and regional coalitions of media companies to address HIV/AIDS. In 2004, we joined with UNAIDS to launch the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI), a call to action issued by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to urge the world’s media leaders to contribute their vast assets to fighting the global pandemic.

More Information on Individual Entertainment Partnerships

This chartpack provides a snapshot of racial/ethnic differences in Medicare beneficiaries? prescription drug coverage, use, and spending. It examines patterns separately for beneficiaries under age 65 and 65+. The summary discusses the relevance of the key findings to the current policy debates about prescription drug coverage.

Chartpack (.pdf)