Long-Term Care: Medicaid’s Role and Challenges

This Policy Brief examines Medicaid’s role in providing long-term care services. It describes long-term care services, the population that needs these services, and how people get long-term care services. It provides an overview of health insurance coverage of persons with long-term care needs and describes both Medicare’s and Medicaid’s role in providing these services. It also examines some of the policy issues and challenges involved in providing long-term care services to an aging society.

• Policy Brief

class=normal>Kids & Media @ The New MillenniumNovember 17, 1999New York City

Agenda

8:30 a.m. Registration

9:00 a.m. Welcome – Drew E. Altman, Ph.D., President, Kaiser Family Foundation

9:10 a.m. Presentation of study results

Key findings: Vicky Rideout, Director, Kaiser Family Foundation’sProgram on the Entertainment Media & Public Health

Comments: Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Communication,Stanford University

Questions from the press: Drew E. Altman, Ph.D.

10:00 a.m. Roundtable discussion – Jeff Greenfield, CNN, moderator

Discussants: Barrett Alexander, CEO, Rogue EntertainmentKen Auletta, The New YorkerJane Brown, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Chuck D, Public Enemy Christina Ferrari, Managing Editor, Teen People Tom Freston, CEO, MTV Networks Alan Kay, Vice President, Walt Disney CompanyJamie Kellner, CEO, The WB Television Network William Kennard, Chair, Federal Communications CommissionRebecca Odes, gURL.com Neil Postman, Ph.D., New York University Donald F. Roberts, Jr., Ph.D., Stanford University Joel Schumacher, Writer/Director Deborah Tang, Vice President, BET Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Actor

12:00 noon Adjournment

is one of the most comprehensive national public studies ever conducted of young people’s media use. The study, based on a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 children ages 2 -18, shows how much time kids spend watching TV and movies, using computers, playing video games, listening to music, and reading. The report also looks at how much oversight parents exert over their children’s media use, and addresses numerous other issues such as how kids use media, whether ‘new’ media is replacing traditional media, and whether use of new media varies by age, gender or race.

• Agenda
• Biographies of Roundtable Participants
• Executive Summary
• Appendices
• Report
• Fact Sheet

A 2-page issue brief about the collection and use of health care information for California’s public health, health care and managed care systems. The issue brief includes a brief outline of the kind of health care information that is currently being collected at both the state and national level to support policy development, government oversight, and consumer education. The Issue Brief lists Roundtable participants for a Roundtable Event: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 – 1:00-4:00 PM, State Capitol, Room 112, Sacramento, California.

• Issue Brief

In November 1996, the Kaiser Family Foundation initiated a project to examine different strategies for expanding health insurance coverage to America’s growing uninsured population. The Foundation asked two leading health policy experts with experience in Democratic and Republican leadership roles, Judith Feder and Sheila Burke, to direct the project’s work in considering and evaluating the potential for, and likely impact of, alternative incremental reform options. This continuing effort has made important contributions to the public and policy dialogue about covering the uninsured. With new proposals emerging across political parties as we head into the 2000 election, the project’s analysis of tax-based reform options along with direct subsidy or government expansion options is directly relevant and useful to the debate. produced a series of expert proposals and issue papers .

Southern Africa Grantmakers’ Affinity Group: The Role of U.S. Grantmakers in a Changing Region

November 10-12, 1999 Westfields Marriott, Chantilly, Virginia Introduction

Southern Africa has had its share of turmoil and dramatic change. Although South Africa has over the past five years established itself as a shining example of democracy and Mozambique has transformed its economy and government shattered by nearly a decade of civil war, the situation is not as favorable throughout the region.

Peace efforts in Angola have disintegrated; political and human rights are under threat in Zimbabwe; regional armies stepped in to stabilize Lesotho; trade unions and activist groups press for greater democratic rights in Swaziland. Besides the continuing political challenges, the historical social and economic development needs are compounded by an accelerating HIV/AIDS epidemic which threatens to decimate the region.

Proposal

Private U.S. funders have played a long running and important role in the transformation of the region. The question in the present context, however, is how effective can grantmakers and donors be in this changing environment? Is the political environment conducive to sustainable progress on social and economic needs? What are the prospects for civil society in the region? Will all our efforts be swamped by the AIDS catastrophe? How do we work effectively with regional governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector? How can private funders better leverage their resources and impact?

As part of an on-going series of meetings designed to foster U.S.-Southern Africa independent sectors linkages, the Affinity Group plans to hold a 2-day workshop to examine these pertinent questions and to exchange practical ideas about increasing the collective effectiveness of private U.S. funders in southern Africa. The emphasis will be on real examples of effective grantmaking, program interventions and case studies of private-public collaboration and partnerships, as well as prospects for increasing U.S-southern African linkages.

The workshop will include an opportunity to engage in discussion with resource persons from southern Africa, as well as high level representatives of U.N. agencies, the World Bank, and U.S. government.

Proposed Discussion Topics

• Southern Africa in the post-Mandela era: Political, Economic and Social Challenges
• What Lessons Have Private Funders Learned in Southern Africa?
• Case Studies of Effective Grantmaking
• Collaborating with Bi-Lateral and International Donor Organizations
• Investment Driven Grantmaking
• The Prospects for Civil Society: Examining The Enabling Environment
• Examining Practical Examples of Public-Private Partnerships
• Developing Partnerships between funders, government and non-government organizations
• The Sustainability Conundrum: Indigenous Philanthropy, Endowments
• The HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Implications and Responses
• Making the Affinity Group a more Effective Resource

Outcome

It is anticipated that participants will come up with a viable plan of action for the way forward to effective grantmaking. This will include drawing up a practical outline/timetable for implementing the recommendations reached at the end of the workshop.

Results from the 1999 Survey of Experiences with Medicare HMOs

This report examines the effects of Medicare HMO withdrawals on elderly and disabled beneficiaries who were involuntarily disenrolled from their HMO at the end of 1998. Based on a nationally-representative survey, the report describes new insurance arrangements made by beneficiaries after their HMO withdrew and considers the effects of this insurance transition on benefits, costs, and continuity of care. The study finds that most beneficiaries fared relatively well after their Medicare HMO withdrew, but more than a third of all disenrollees experienced a decline in supplemental benefits, nearly 40 percent incurred higher premiums, and over 20 percent had to find a new personal doctor. Beneficiaries who experienced the greatest problems after their HMO terminated coverage tended to be the under-age-65 disabled, racial and ethnic minority beneficiaries, the poor and near-poor, and those reporting fair or poor health. A paper based on the findings in this report appears in the November/December 1999 issue of Health Affairs, Volume 18, Number 6.

• Report

This study of Native Americans health care funding and expenditures includes the following: An analysis of all sources of financing and the level of total health expenditures by and on behalf of Native Americans, a detailed analysis of the same data for each of the 12 Indian Health Service areas across the country, an estimate of per-capita spending for health services to Native Americans overall, an illustration of the tribal discrepancies in per capita spending and a projection of the increased cost if Native Americans were provided with a typical employment-based insurance benefits package.

• Report

An analysis of issues affecting reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The study examines the historical impact and effectiveness of the current law, its relevance in the context of the contemporary health environment and the issues pertinent to discussions about reauthorization of the Act.

• Report

“Capping” a Family’s Benefits

Policy makers have long grappled with the complex questions of how to reduce poverty and promote economic self-sufficiency among the poor. Recent efforts have focused on how to influence key behaviors such as the decision to have children outside of marriage. One common legislative proposal has been to eliminate the traditional incremental increase in monthly benefits families typically receive after another child is born. This policy has been dubbed a “family cap” or “child exclusion.” This issue brief reviews federal and state laws related to the family cap and summarizes existing research findings about the impact of these policies on birth rates, abortion, and contraceptive use. It also examines public opinion on the subject.

• Issue Update