The debate over President Clinton’s national health care reform plan put health care policy at the forefront of the national agenda in 1993 and 1994. After the end of that debate, it remained to be seen whether or not health policy would hold the media’s and the public s interest to the same degree. To help answer that and other questions, a comprehensive study of health policy media coverage from 1997 through 2000 – focusing mainly on the topics of managed care, Medicare, the uninsured, and health care costs — was undertaken by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation, in conjunction with Princeton Survey Research Associates.

This article, which appeared in the Jan/Feb 2002 issue of the journal Health Affairs, examines the availability of health plan choice for employees. After reviewing previous research and providing information on the data set employed, the authors, Tom Rice, Jon Gabel, Larry Levitt and Samantha Hawkins, examine changes in the extent of health plans choice over the past decade and the choices available to workers in 2001.

Note: This publication is no longer in circulation. However, a few copies may still exist in the Foundation’s internal library that could be xeroxed. Please email order@kff.org if you would like to pursue this option.

On June 5, 2001, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation jointly sponsored a daylong Symposium to mark the 20th year of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and focus on the key challenges facing the United States at home and abroad in the epidemic’s third decade. This policy brief continues the process begun that day by highlighting some of the challenges and approaches to addressing the epidemic, with a focus on the U.S. role. The policy brief examines domestic and global challenges. It was developed as part of AIDS at 20: A National Policy Initiative, a joint initiative of the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Ford Foundation designed to help inform the U.S. response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

• Policy Brief

Complete Survey Toplines for the Kaiser Health News Index: 2001

The Kaiser Health News Index is designed to provide key tracking information on public opinion about health care topics to journalists, policymakers and the general public.

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This Chart Book includes data and background information critical to understanding the Medicare program and the challenges it faces in keeping up with the rising costs of health care and in ensuring the program s future financial security. The document is organized into the following six sections: Medicare s Beneficiaries, Medicare Spending and Utilization, Supplemental Insurance and Out-of-Pocket Spending, the Medicare+Choice program, Medicare and Prescription Drugs, and Financing Medicare.

A new brief policy analysis illustrates the relationship between rising unemployment and increased Medicaid enrollment and spending.

• Brief Policy Analysis

This fact sheet provides an overview of the Medicaid program’s increasing reliance on managed care to deliver services.

• Fact Sheet

An updated study follows trends in commercial health plan participation in Medicaid managed care and includes new analyses on the performance of Medicaid-dominated and commercial plans on measures of effective care and access to care, and on the extent to which plans restrict their Medicaid service areas.

The Internet has become a daily part of life especially for younger Americans. Teens as well as adults are now going online to look for health information. What exactly are young people looking for? Do they trust what they find? Is it influencing what they talk about with their peers, parents, or physicians? Are they worried about privacy? Pornography? Parental controls?

A panel featuring Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project; Gretchen Berland, MD, Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Internal Medicine; Esther Drill, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, gURL.com; and Robert Johnson, MD, Director of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, New Jersey Medical School discussed all these issues and more at an Emerging Issues in Reproductive Health Briefing. New findings from a national survey of teens and young adults experiences with and attitudes toward online health information were presented.

• Report 
• Chartpack 
• Teen Sexual Activity Fact Sheet