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The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker is an online hub monitoring how well the U.S. health system is operating through key quality and cost measures. A partnership of the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF, the Tracker documents trends in Health Spending, Quality of Care, Access & Affordability, and Health & Wellbeing through…

Health spending growth has consistently outpaced U.S. economic growth and is higher than medical spending in other wealthy countries. Despite spending more, the United States doesn’t have better health outcome in terms of life expectancy, mortality rates and other measures. This brief provides an overview of trends in health costs and the performance of the U.S. health system, including comparisons to countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The brief charts growth in the nation’s per capita health spending along with the recent slowdown, touching on the roles of expanded Medicaid eligibility, increases in Medicare beneficiaries and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Additionally, it discusses the health system’s effectiveness and capacity to provide services, including the accessibility and affordability of care.

The Medicaid Managed Care Market Tracker, a new feature of the Foundation’s State Health Facts data center, provides the latest data on key dimensions of risk-based Medicaid managed care for the 39 states that contract with MCOs – these states are home to more than 90 percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide. On Thursday, December 11 at 12:30 p.m. ET, the Foundation will host an interactive web briefing with Medicaid managed care expert Julia Paradise, an Associate Director of the Foundation’s Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

This report highlights 10 key findings on the Medicaid managed care market, based on analysis of data included in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicaid Managed Care Market Tracker. The findings provide a partial profile of the Medicaid MCO market nationally and by state. They also illuminate the involvement of large, multi-state health insurance companies in the Medicaid market and the participation of these firms in other markets as well, including the managed long-term services and supports market, the new ACA marketplaces, and the Medicare Advantage market. Finally, these selected highlights serve to illustrate the array of ways the Tracker can be used to understand more about the Medicaid managed care market and its place in the broader market.

In this five-minute animated video, the YouToons help consumers understand their health insurance through fun, easy-to-understand explanations and scenarios. This cartoon serves as a tutorial for consumers and organizations. The YouToons previously appeared in the 2010 animated movie, “Health Reform Hits Main Street” and the 2013, “The YouToons Get Ready for Obamacare: Health Insurance Changes Coming Your Way Under the Affordable Care Act.”

About 8 million people signed up for a health plan through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces by the end of the 2014 open enrollment period — 28 percent of the potential market, according to Kaiser Family Foundation estimates. As the ACA’s second open enrollment period gears up, a new…

Larry Levitt’s November 2014 post looks at the challenges with people not understanding basic health insurance concepts as millions of them evaluate and choose health plans during open enrollment season for insurance in 2015.