Vermont’s Choices for Care Medicaid Long-Term Services Waiver: Progress and Challenges As the Program Concluded Its Third Year October 31, 2008 Report Vermont's Choices for Care experiment in long-term services, created through a five-year Medicaid waiver in 2005, was designed to increase access to home and community-based services while reducing the use of institutional services and controlling overall costs. In exchange for agreeing to a federal funding cap, Vermont was able to…
Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlight: The Coverage Gap October 30, 2008 Report This Medicare Part D data spotlight examines the coverage gap, or “doughnut hole,” in Medicare drug plans available in 2009. While in the gap in coverage, Part D enrollees (other than those receiving low-income subsidies) are required to pay 100 percent of total drug costs until they reach the catastrophic…
Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlight: Low-Income Subsidy Plan Availability October 30, 2008 Issue Brief This Medicare Part D Data Spotlight focuses on the availability of drug plans for beneficiaries receiving the Part D low-income subsidy in 2009 and changes since 2006. For 2009, fewer than one in five plans qualify for automatic or facilitated enrollment of low-income subsidy beneficiaries, the lowest share since the…
Medicare Part D 2009 Data Spotlight: Premiums October 30, 2008 Report This Medicare Part D data spotlight analyzes the premiums charged by the 1,689 stand-alone Medicare Part D plans that will be offered in markets across the country in 2009. The analysis finds premiums charged for Part D plans range widely, from $10.30 per month to $136.80 per month. If current…
Low-Wage Workers and Health Care October 30, 2008 Poll Finding This brief is based on a survey conducted this summer by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University to focus on the experiences and challenges facing the lowest paid members of the American workforce. Low-wage workers rate “getting more affordable health insurance” as the top priority for…
Findings of Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 — October 2008 October 20, 2008 Poll Finding This document contains the key findings from the October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,217 adults ages 18 and older, including 1,115 adults who say they are registered to vote, who were interviewed by telephone between October 8 and…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008: October 2008 October 20, 2008 Poll Finding The final Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds more people are reporting problems with health care bills, and paying for health care retains a solid hold on the public’s list of their top economic concerns. About one in three Americans now report their family has had problems paying medical…
Toplines: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 — October 2008 October 20, 2008 Poll Finding This document contains the detailed toplines from the October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,217 adults ages 18 and older, including 1,115 adults who say they are registered to vote, who were interviewed by telephone between October 8 and…
Eliminating Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: What are the Options? October 20, 2008 Issue Brief Download PDF Racial and ethnic disparities in health care – whether in insurance coverage, access, or quality of care – are one of many factors producing inequalities in health status in the United States.1 Eliminating these disparities is politically sensitive and challenging in part because their causes are intertwined with…
Health Care Costs and Election 2008 October 14, 2008 Issue Brief Download PDF KEY FACTS ON HEALTH CARE COSTS Health spending in the United States is an estimated $2.4 trillion in 2008, an average of $7,868 per person The share of the economy (GDP) devoted to national health spending has increased from 7.2% in 1970 to an estimated 16.6% in 2008…
