Tracking Public Opinion on National Health Plan: Interactive October 16, 2020 Interactive This interactive allows users to track public opinion on a national health plan using all nationally representatives polls conducted since 2016, with further analysis of how favorability toward such a plan may differ based on political party identification and question wording.
What Iowa and New Hampshire tell us about Medicare-for-All February 14, 2020 Perspective In this Axios column, Drew Altman analyzes data from the New Hampshire exit poll showing that support for Medicare-for-all played a role in the primary while broader support for a more moderate plan may be a signal about the general election.
Even Supporters May Not Understand Medicare-for-All March 2, 2020 Perspective In this Axios column, Drew Altman shows that the majority of supporters don’t know how Medicare-for-all works, with both positive and negative implications for support if they knew more.
Pre-existing Conditions: What Are They and How Many People Have Them? October 1, 2020 Blog Facing a challenge now before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) included provisions to protect people with pre-existing conditions from discrimination in the individual employment market. This post explains what pre-existing conditions are and the different estimates for the number of people who have them.
Lowering the Age of Medicare Eligibility Would Likely Reduce Health Spending for Employers, But Raise Costs for the Federal Government by Covering More People in Medicare April 27, 2021 News Release Two new KFF analyses find that lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 60 could significantly reduce health spending for employers, who could potentially pass savings to employees in the form of lower premiums or higher wages. Additionally, per person health spending for older adults who move from…
Expanding Medicare to Adults at Age 60 Years—Medicare-for-More? May 27, 2021 Perspective In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt examines the implications of lowering Medicare’s age of eligibility, which is emerging as a potential pathway toward Medicare-for-all or a public option among single-payer advocates. He explores the implications for costs, industry, people and broader reform efforts.
Two-Thirds of the Public Say the U.S. Should Play a Major Role in Distributing COVID-19 Vaccines Globally, But Not Most Republicans June 3, 2021 News Release With increased attention to the global need for COVID-19 vaccines and the Biden administration’s announcement today about how it plans to distribute the first portion of the 80 million doses it will share by the end of this month, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that two-thirds of the…
Medicare and Dental Coverage: A Closer Look July 28, 2021 Issue Brief Medicare does not cover routine dental care and about half of Medicare beneficiaries do not have dental coverage. Some beneficiaries have dental coverage through other sources, including Medicare Advantage, but 47% of all beneficiaries have not been to the dentist in the past year and many older adults face high out-of-pocket costs for needed dental care. This brief provides new data on the share of Medicare beneficiaries with dental coverage, the share with a dental visit in the past 12 months, and out-of-pocket spending on dental care. It also takes a closer look at the scope of dental benefits offered to Medicare Advantage enrollees in individual plans in 2021.
Lacking Dental Coverage, Many People on Medicare Forgo Dental Care, Especially Beneficiaries of Color July 28, 2021 News Release Many people enrolled in Medicare go without dental care, especially beneficiaries of color, according to a new KFF analysis of dental coverage and costs for people with Medicare. Almost half of all Medicare beneficiaries (47%) did not have a dental visit within the past year as of 2018, the analysis…
Pulling It Together: Implementation Is Forever April 5, 2010 Perspective Now that historic health reform legislation is law, everyone is rightfully focused on implementation. There are two very different ways to look at implementation. One is the more legalistic worm’s eye view, which sees implementation largely as the process of putting into effect what was written in the law. In…