Analysis Finds Record 3,148 Medicare Advantage Plans Will be Available in 2020 October 24, 2019 News Release A record 3,148 Medicare Advantage plans will be available across the country as alternatives to traditional Medicare, a new KFF analysis finds. That’s up 15% from last year’s 2,734 plans and results in a typical beneficiary having 28 plans available to them in their local market for the 2020 Medicare…
List Prices Increased As Much As 9 Times Faster Than Inflation for 20 of the Top 25 Part D Drugs, Suggesting Potential for Savings Under Proposed Inflation Rebate Policies October 18, 2019 News Release A new KFF analysis finds that the list prices for most of the top Medicare Part D drugs by total spending increased as much as nine times the rate of inflation (1.7%) between 2016 and 2017, suggesting recent Congressional proposals targeting such increases could generate savings for Medicare and Part…
State Budgets for Fiscal Year 2020 Include Total Medicaid Spending Growth of 6.2 Percent on Average, Even As Enrollment Remains Essentially Flat October 18, 2019 News Release States budgeted for total Medicaid spending to increase at a faster pace than enrollment in fiscal year 2020, driven in part by rising costs for prescription drugs, provider rate increases and higher costs associated with caring for the elderly and disabled, according to KFF’s new 50-state Medicaid budget survey. The…
Poll: About Half of Public Supports a Ban on Both Flavored and All E-Cigarettes, Though Most Young Adults Are Opposed October 17, 2019 News Release With more than 1,000 lung injuries and two dozen deaths nationally associated with vaping and e-cigarettes, a new KFF poll finds a narrow majority (52%) of the public supports a ban on the sale of fruit- and other flavored e-cigarettes, while 44% oppose it. When asked whether all e-cigarettes should…
Many Community Health Centers Report That Immigrant Patients Are Declining to Enroll in Medicaid or Renew Their Coverage Amid Concerns About Changes to Public Charge Rules October 15, 2019 News Release Nearly half (47%) of community health centers report that many or some immigrant patients declined to enroll themselves in Medicaid in the past year, according to a new KFF survey, and nearly a third (32%) of centers say that some patients dropped or decided not to renew such coverage. Interviews…
Visualizing Health Policy: US Public’s Perspective on Prescription Drug Costs October 15, 2019 News Release This Visualizing Health Policy infographic examines public opinion on prescription drug costs in the United States (US). Over the past 20 years, US drug spending has increased by 330% compared to a 208% increase in total US health expenditures. A large majority (78%) of the public see drug company profits…
Poll: Democrats Say They Are Hearing Enough From Presidential Candidates About Medicare-for-All and Expanding Coverage, But Want Them to Talk More about Health Costs and Women’s Health Care October 15, 2019 News Release Heading into tonight’s Democratic primary debate, most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say the candidates are spending the right amount or too much time talking about ways to provide coverage to more Americans and Medicare-for-all, two topics that have dominated health care discussions in the past three rounds of Democratic debates,…
Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Who Reach the Catastrophic Coverage Limit Can Expect to Pay More Out-of-Pocket for Their Prescription Drugs Next Year October 11, 2019 News Release Medicare Part D enrollees with relatively high out-of-pocket expenses can expect see their costs rise in 2020, according to a new KFF analysis. This is mainly due to an increase in how much enrollees will pay out of pocket for their prescription drugs in the Part D benefit coverage gap…
Nearly 54 Million Americans Have Pre-Existing Conditions That Would Make Them Uninsurable in the Individual Market without the ACA October 4, 2019 News Release Almost Half of Non-Elderly Families have At Least One Adult with a Pre-Existing Condition An updated KFF analysis estimates that almost 54 million people – or 27% of all adults under 65 —have pre-existing health conditions that would likely have made them uninsurable in the individual markets that existed in…
Kaiser Health News (KHN) Wins Prestigious Barlett & Steele Investigative Journalism Award October 2, 2019 News Release KFF is pleased to announce that Kaiser Health News (KHN), its editorially independent health news service, won a top prize in the 13th annual Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Journalism.
