Florida’s Medicaid Prescription Drug Benefit: A Case Study
Florida’s Medicaid Prescription Drug Benefit: A Case Study
A new study summarizes and discusses the state s attempt to reform its Medicaid prescription drug benefit program.
States Strive to Limit Medicaid Expenditures for Prescribed Drugs
A new report presenting year 2000 trends on prescription drug spending, summarizing states options in designing their benefit, and reviewing several ways states are using their flexibility to curb the rate of growth of their Medicaid drug budgets.
Sexual Activity and Substance Use Among Youth
Teens and young adults face many pressures and decisions involving alcohol, drugs, and sexual activity decisions that often occur simultaneously. Almost one quarter of sexually active young people aged 15-24 report having sex without a condom because they were drinking or using drugs at the time. These findings are from a new national survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and released at a conference, Dangerous Liaisons: Substance Abuse and Sexual Behavior, sponsored by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
- Survey Snapshot
- Toplines/Survey
- Fact Sheet: Substance Use and Sexual Health Among Teens and Young Adults in the U.S.
- Issue Update: Substance Use and Risky Sexual Activity
Rising Unemployment and the Uninsured
A brief policy analysis (revised as of January 2002) examines the relationship between the unemployment rate and increases in the uninsured and finds that for every percentage point increase in the unemployment rate, 1.2 million people will become uninsured.
Medicaid’s Role for Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries
Medicaid’s Role for Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries
An overview that identifies low-income Medicare beneficiaries (dual eligibles), how Medicaid can provide care for them, and the challenges to accessing care.
- Fact Sheet: Medicaid’s Role for Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries
Barriers to Medicaid Enrollment for Seniors: Findings from 10 Focus Groups with Low-Income Seniors
Medicaid coverage substantially improves access to health care and lessens the financial burden of medical care for low-income seniors, but the program currently reaches only half of all poor Medicare beneficiaries. This report presents findings of focus groups with low-income seniors in an effort to understand barriers to enrollment for those who are eligible for Medicaid but who are not enrolled in the program, and to learn about the experiences of low-income seniors who are enrolled in Medicaid to see how the program is working for them. The report concludes with a list of strategies for encouraging greater enrollment of low-income seniors in Medicaid.
The Sad History of Cost Containment as Told in One Chart
As the nation once again faces double digit increases in health care costs, the seemingly unanswerable question of how to control the problem has suddenly returned to the nation’s radar screen. This analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published in the January 23, 2002 online version of the journal Health Affairs (under Web Exclusives) traces the effectiveness of government and private sector attempts to reign in health care costs over the past three decades and finds that no approach that has been tried in the past 35 years has had a lasting impact.
Poll Finding
Women’s Health Care Providers STD Counseling and Testing
Many women rely on their physicians to help them assess whether they are at risk for STDs and to provide them with information about testing, treatment and how to protect themselves. To better understand how often they discuss and screen for STDs, including HIV, the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed 767 physicians, including 566 obstetricians and gynecologists and 201 family practice practitioners, for the National Survey of Women’s Health Care Providers on Reproductive Health.
Nelson Mandela and loveLife Launch National Youth Corps to fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Nelson Mandela and loveLife Launch National Youth Corps to fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa
Former President Nelson Mandela has announced the establishment of a national youth service corps dedicated to fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Known as Groundbreakers, the corps will be a major new component of loveLife – South Africa’s national HIV prevention program for youth. Mr. Mandela announced the initiative, a partnership between loveLife and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, during the presentation of the 2002 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in Cape Town.
“The Groundbreakers will help young South Africans take an active role in reducing the spread of HIV, while developing skills to build healthy futures,” said John Samuel, Chief Executive of the Mandela Foundation. “If HIV infections continue at their current rate, over 50% of today’s young South Africans could become HIV infected. The Groundbreakers will play a key role in motivating young people to take control of their lives, get the information they need and to stop the epidemic in its tracks.”
Groundbreakers volunteers, all between 18 and 25 years of age, will give one year of service in loveLife in return for personal and professional skills training that will help them secure future employment. Over the next three years, the Groundbreakers youth corps is expected to grow to about 600 members.
The Groundbreakers initiative will complement loveLife‘s comprehensive approach to HIV prevention for young people, which includes:
Medicaid: Purchasing Prescription Drugs
Medicaid: Purchasing Prescription Drugs
A policy brief explaining how Medicaid purchases outpatient drugs and outlining the policy tools available to states to limit the rate of growth in spending on prescription drugs.
- Policy Brief (28 pages)