Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform: Supporting High-Need and Low-Income Populations April 30, 2009 Issue Brief Medicaid is the health insurance safety net for nearly 60 million of the nation’s poorest and sickest individuals. It provides access to a comprehensive scope of benefits with limited cost-sharing that is geared to meet the health needs and limited resources of the low-income, high-need populations it serves, populations for…
Expanding Health Coverage for Low-Income Adults: Filling the Gaps in Medicaid Eligibility April 30, 2009 Issue Brief Low-income adults (those with incomes below 200 percent of poverty, or $33,200 for a family of three in 2007) account for just over half of the non-elderly uninsured in the United States. This brief reviews the health coverage of non-elderly low-income adults and discusses the implications for national health reform…
Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Sen. Max Baucus May 21, 2009 Event This May 21, 2009 webcast features Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) at a Health Care Reform Newsmaker media briefing sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business. The reporters-only sessions, designed to inform the public about prospects and options for health…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – June 2009 May 31, 2009 Poll Finding The June Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds remarkable stability in public opinion on health reform as Congressional committees begin to hone in on the details of their health reform bills and debate intensifies. A solid majority of the American people continue to believe that health reform is more important than…
Explaining Health Reform: Medicare and the New Independent Payment Advisory Board April 29, 2010 Issue Brief This brief describes how the new board created under the 2010 health reform law is expected to limit the growth in Medicare spending over time. Starting in 2014, if projected per capita Medicare spending exceeds targets set in the law, the board must recommend ways to reduce Medicare spending, while…
Pulling it Together: The “Third School” for Controlling Health Care Costs? October 26, 2009 Perspective For as long as I have been in the field, there have been two dominant schools of thought about how to control health care costs. One school, The Regulators, believed that the best way to slow increasing costs was to control the total resources going into the health care system:…
Today’s Topics In Health Disparities: What Might Health Reform Mean for Women of Color? December 10, 2009 Event This December 16, 2009, Today’s Topics In Health Disparities webcast examined aspects of the current Senate and House health reform bills that particularly impact women of color. Women tend to be greater users of the health care system than men, have higher rates of some chronic illnesses, and have unique…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — March 2010 March 28, 2010 Poll Finding The March Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the public still divided on health reform legislation, with 46 percent of Americans backing the reform proposals on Capitol Hill, 42 percent opposing them and 12 percent saying they aren’t sure. Six in 10 Americans say they have heard little or nothing about…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — April 2010 April 1, 2010 Poll Finding The first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll fielded since the passage of health reform last month finds that 8 in 10 Americans know that President Obama signed the legislation into law. But 55 percent say they are confused about the law and more than half (56%) say they don’t yet have…
Explaining Health Reform: Key Changes in the Medicare Advantage Program April 29, 2010 Issue Brief This brief examines the changes in the 2010 health reform law affecting the Medicare Advantage program, which gives beneficiaries the option of enrolling in private insurance plans for their Medicare benefits, instead of the traditional fee-for-service program. The reform law will gradually reduce Medicare payments to these plans to bring…
