The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
This brief uses the latest available data from the National Survey of America’s Families to assess the relationship of health coverage to work status, health, access and use of health services by women who left welfare in 1997 or after and had not returned by 1999.
This report, prepared by Marilyn Moon of The Urban Institute and Robert Friedland and Lee Shirey of Georgetown University’s Center on an Aging Society, reviews the income and assets of the current Medicare population, provides an overview of asset tests used to determine eligibility for programs assisting low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and considers how alternative policy options would affect eligibility for these programs.
The authors find that beneficiaries with low incomes tend to have minimal assets. Eighty-five percent of all Medicare beneficiaries with incomes below the poverty level have less than $12,000 in assets and more than half have less than $1,500 in assets. Even moderate asset holdings can prevent beneficiaries from qualifying for low-income assistance, however, given the asset criteria often used by programs offering coverage to low-income Medicare beneficiaries. In considering options such as raising asset limits, eliminating them altogether, and redefining assets and how they are determined, the authors find that each of these approaches would allow significant numbers of additional low-income Medicare beneficiaries to qualify for assistance. While adding to the cost of public programs, these policy changes would clearly expand their capacity to reach their target populations.
This fourth edition of The Federal Budget Chartbook, provides the most recent spending data on federal funding for HIV/AIDS. The chartbook also includes data on spending trends between FY 1995 and FY 2001 and data on specific programs. Click here to view the three previous editions of the Federal Budget Chartbook.
The 50 state survey of enrollment simplification and renewal procedural reforms, shows that states continue to take steps to transform the Medicaid program from its origins as a welfare-based program into something resembling a more traditional health insurance program.
African Americans represent twelve percent of the U.S. population, or approximately 35 million people, but have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
This chartpack presents a brief overview of the state of prescription drug coverage among the Medicare population. It reviews the impact of lack of coverage on beneficiaries’ access to prescription drugs, as well as current levels of total and out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs.
“the Pill”
This issue update reviews the research to date on the Pill the oldest hormonal contraceptive option as well as current medical recommendations concerning what women should know to make an informed choice about which contraceptive method to use.
Health News Index May/June, 2002
The Health News Index measures public attention to and knowledge about leading health stories covered in the news in April and May, including discussions in Congress about a Medicare prescription drug benefit and warnings by medical researchers about possible harmful side effects of newer prescription drugs compared to older, similarly effective drugs. 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 report analyzes enrollment data of recent years and draws on state experiences to outline the key strategies that will lead to successful enrollment in public health coverage programs and finds that improving enrollment in Medicaid drives improved overall enrollment into a state s public coverage programs.
This fact sheet presents the key questions and answers regarding transitional medical assistance as a part of the Medicaid program and its relationship to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the welfare program.