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This policy brief includes background information on Medicaid and its drug benefit, provides examples of how states are using the cost containment mechanisms at their disposal and addresses issues surrounding beneficiary access to outpatient drugs.
The Health Rights Hotline, a four-year pilot consumer assistance programbegun in Sacramento, California in July 1996, provides health plan enrolleeswith information about managed care and helps them resolve difficulties withtheir plans. The Hotline is a program of the non-profit Center for HealthCare Rights, and has been funded by three private health care foundations:the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the California Wellness Foundation,and the Sierra Health Foundation.
This demonstration project, located in the Sacramento region in part becauseof its high managed care penetration, is the largest test of an independentconsumer assistance program in the country. To better serve as a model forsimilar programs, the Hotline has systematically collected data on theproblems experienced by its clients and how they are resolved, and will beevaluated as part of the pilot project with results posted on this websitewhen available.
Sources of information related to the Health Rights Hotline include:
What is now known as HIV/AIDS was first identified in the U.S. in 1981. Specific federal funding for HIV/AIDS also began that year with the appropriation of several hundred thousand dollars for biomedical research. Since that time, funding has grown to more than $18 billion in fiscal year 2004 for research, prevention, care and assistance, and international programs and activities.
The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Federal HIV/AIDS Spending: A Budget Chartbook, provides the most recent spending data on federal funding for HIV/AIDS, including information on spending trends since FY 1995 and data on specific programs. The most recent chartbook includes data for FY 2002.
Talking with Kids (and Parents)
Talking with Kids, a partnership of the Kaiser Family Foundation and Children Now, has teamed up with Nickelodeon, the number-one kids’ entertainment brand, to create Talking with Kids (And Parents) About Tough Issues, a campaign to encourage earlier and more frequent parent-child communication. Launched in March of 2001, the on-going effort includes resources to support talks on a range of “tough issues,” including sex, violence, alcohol and drugs, and respect. Under the partnership, Talking with Kids and Nickelodeon also published a nationally representative survey about family communication, based on interview with of over 1500 parents and their children age 8-15.
New Public Service Announcements for Parents and for Kids
Nickelodeon and Talking with Kids created new :30 second PSAs for parents, which encourage them to talk with their kids about sex and puberty, among other issues. They are tagged with an online resource developed especially for the partnership (www.everythingNick.com), and the campaign’s toll-free hotline (1 800 CHILD 44). They air across Viacom networks, including TNN, CMT, and Nick at Nite.
The partnership also created a series of :60 second spots for kids, which show parents and kids in unscripted settings, talking with each other about “tough issues”; like puberty, teasing and bullying. They are tagged with a new resource for developed just for kids (www.Nick.com/your_world), and air on Nickelodeon and Noggin.
Online Resources
At www.everythingNick.com, parents can find age-appropriate guidance and tips for raising difficult topics with their kids. Material is available for parents of kindergarteners, elementary school-age children, and middle school students. The website also offers resources on media literacy.
At www.Nick.com/your_world, kids can take a “Talk Challenge” encouraging them to turn to their parents for and share experiences in a monitored message board.
Free Parent Guide
In conjunction with the website, Nickelodeon and Talking with Kids developed a free parent guide, which offers information on parent-child communication, and includes a “Talk Contract” that kids and parents can fill out together. It is available online, or free of charge through the campaign’s hotline.
Toll Free Hotline: Parents can call 1 800 CHILD 44 to receive the free guide.
Campaign-Related Materials
Awards
The first fact sheet in a series on topics related to children, media and health focuses on video games — pulling together the key facts on the amount of time young people spend using video games, how use varies by age, gender and ethnicity, and the best research on the impact of video games on young players. Future issues will focus on violence on television, media ratings, and the online activities of teenagers.
The first fact sheet in a series on topics related to children, media and health focuses on video games — pulling together the key facts on the amount of time young people spend using video games, how use varies by age, gender and ethnicity, and the best research on the impact of video games on young players. Future issues will focus on violence on television, media ratings, and the online activities of teenagers.
The Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University Survey Project’s latest findings appeared in an article in The Washington Post on October 20, 2002. The survey explores age-related variations in views of politics and policy, including voting behaviors, opinions of the government, and social values.
Full Report: Spending on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic: A Three Part Series
This compliation policy brief provides analysis of spending on the HIV/AIDS epidemic both by the United States government and globally. Included is an analysis of U.S. federal spending on the HIV/AIDS epidemic since FY 1981; spending by the U.S. on global HIV/AIDS activities and programs; and global spending on HIV/AIDS in resource-poor settings, including bilateral, multilateral, and private sector support.This policy brief was prepared as part of AIDS at 20: A National HIV/AIDS Policy Initiative, a joint initiative of the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation. You may download the full report or each policy brief separately.
A hotly debated issue in Congress has been the issue of when health maintenance organizations, health insurers, and those who administer health benefit plans should be financially liable to their plan participants for a denial of a claim or for damages for any injuries that result from such denials (known as health plan liability ). This new report by Gary Claxton of the Georgetown Institute for Health Care Research and Policy describes the health plan liability issue, compares the different health plan liability provisions passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, and provides two scenarios that illustrate the differences between the Senate and House liability provisions.
This issue update reviews abortion since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized it in 1973. Every state has laws regulating some aspect of the provision of abortion, and many have passed restrictions that are now in effect, such as parental consent or notification requirements; mandated counseling and waiting periods; and limits on funding for abortion.
Issue Brief (.pdf)