KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
The Health News Index measures public attention to and knowledge about leading health stories covered in the news in June and July, including discussions in Congress about a Medicare prescription drug benefit; a report from the National Institutes of Health on hormone replacement therapy; and the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain. The Health News Index is designed to help news media and people in the health field gain a better understanding of which health stories Americans are following and what they understand about those issues.
This focus group study is of New Yorkers who enrolled in Disaster Relief Medicaid (DRM), a temporary public health insurance program created after the September 11th attacks. It is based on findings from six focus groups conducted with Hispanic, Chinese, and African American New Yorkers.
This memorandum provides background on the issue of contraceptive coverage and presents new findings from the soon to be released Kaiser/HRET 2002 Annual Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits.
This report summarizes the key findings from the largest ever national survey of South African teenagers on their attitudes towards issues such as sex, gender, and substance abuse, as well as their aspirations for the future. This nationally representative random sample of 2,000 South Africans aged 12-17 years shows that young South Africans are overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of South Africa and filled with the usual aspirations and ambitions of youth. However, most young South Africans fear they might not live to realize their dreams and that South Africa’s future prospects may be overwhelmed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The personal risk of HIV/AIDS, as well as it’s impact on friends, families and the country’s future are a major preoccupation for young people.
More than 40% of South Africans are under 15 years of age. These young South Africans are at great risk of HIV infection. At the current rate of infection more than 50% of South Africans under 15 today could die of AIDS-related causes in the next five to ten years. On the one hand, most young South Africans say they are happy with their lives, but at the same time they are also struggling with very serious issues. The AIDS epidemic is a particular source of fear and concern. While almost all young people say they accept responsibility for protecting themselves from the virus, many still do not know important facts about the disease and how it is prevented or treated. Moreover, many sexually active teens are making unsafe choices and hold attitudes that put them at risk for HIV infection.
While young South Africans generally spend large parts of their time doing the things young people do everywhere – watching television, listening to the radio or “hanging out” with friends – poverty is a major factor in the lives of a large proportion of young South Africans. About one third of young South Africans are living in households with less than R1,000 ($130) income per month. Approximately one third of black respondents reported going hungry and many are living in homes that are overcrowded and lack basic amenities such as electricity and sewerage. Most respondents said that if they had money they would spend it on food.
Although the risk of HIV/AIDS looms large in the lives of young South Africans, 65% indicate that they are worried about their personal safety. Crime is the greatest concern (72%), but 62% of respondents cited the fear of sexual or physical abuse as a concern. Many young South Africans are sexually active. About one third of boys and girls aged 12-17 have had sexual intercourse. One in five (18%) of this group reported having their first sexual experience at the age of 12 or younger. Most teenagers say they first learned about sex from their friends and peer pressure and coercion play a significant role in adolescent sexual behaviour. Sex is also often used as a commodity in exchange for money or other forms of payment. Twenty-eight percent of young South Africans indicate they know people their age who have sex for money, and 16% of sexually experienced girls interviewed said they themselves have had sex for money, drinks, food or other gifts.
Although nearly three quarters of respondents say they are positive about the future of South Africa, white and Indian youth in particular are less positive, and 39% of all young South Africans indicate that they will probably leave South Africa someday. Although 8 in 10 respondents say they feel happy mixing with people of all races, 71% said they only have friends of their own race. But the vast majority believe they should participate in determining the country’s future with 88% of respondents saying they think it important to vote in an election.
A new study conducted by researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund, reports results from a 2001 survey of 10,927 noninstitutionalized seniors in eight geographically diverse states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. State-level data on drug coverage, medication use, out-of-pocket costs, and cost-related medication skipping among community-dwelling seniors are highlighted to examine how coverage and experiences differ by state and how well states have been able to close the drug coverage gap for seniors. The study finds nearly one quarter of seniors (22%) reported skipping medications or not filling prescriptions due to costs and a similar share (23%) reported spending at least $100 per month on their medications in 2001. The survey also finds that access and scope of drug coverage depend substantially on where seniors live. Even in states with the highest rates of prescription drug coverage, roughly one in five seniors lacked drug coverage.
The chart pack draws from a Health Affairs article released electronically on July 31, 2002, entitled, Prescription Drug Coverage and Seniors: How Well Are States Closing the Gap? Findings from a 2001 Survey of Seniors in Eight States. The full text of the article is available below.
An issue update that provides preliminary results from a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on their plans to constrain Medicaid cost growth. The full survey will be released in September.
This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a side-by-side comparison of five major federal proposals to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, introduced as of July 31, 2002: H.R. 4954, The Medicare Modernization and Prescription Drug Act of 2002 (passed by the House of Representatives on June 28, 2002); H.R. 5019, The Medicare Rx Drug Benefit and Discount Act of 2002 (Rep. Rangel/House Democratic proposal); S. 2625, The Medicare Outpatient Prescription Drug Act of 2002 (Sen. Graham/Senate Democratic Proposal, including modifications in the Graham Amendment to S.812);S. 2729, The 21st Century Medicare Act (known as the Tripartisan Proposal); andS. 2736, The Medicare Rx Drug Discount and Security Act of 2002 (Sen. Hagel). Modeled on earlier side-by-side comparisons prepared for The Kaiser Family Foundation, this document summarizes the key provisions of leading proposals as part of the Foundation’s continuing effort to track the Medicare prescription drug debate. This side-by-side may be updated to include additional proposals.
An issue brief that looks at mandated health insurance benefits and the tradeoffs among benefits, coverage, and costs. It explores the debate over mandated benefits legislation, the evidence about the impact of mandates, the status of mandated benefits in other states and in California.
Analyses of the Child Health Plan and Other Kaiser Permanente Services for Publicly and Privately Insured Children, a new policy brief prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation by the Institute for Health Policy Studies at U.C. San Francisco, summarizes the results and policy implications of four different analyses comparing the experiences of children enrolled through Kaiser Permanente in the Child Health Plan, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and commercial programs. The aggregate time period for the four studies covered in the policy brief is September 1998-October 2000.
This report by Michael Gluck of the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy examines several ways in which the federal government influences the availability and cost of prescription drugs, including 1) intellectual property protection the laws and policies which regulate and influence patents and generic competition (include the Hatch-Waxman Act), 2) federal support for drug research and development, 3) federal tax subsidies through various tax credits available to pharmaceutical firms, and 4) reimportation from other countries of drugs produced in the US. July, 2002.
