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Medicare’s Role for Women This fact sheet highlights Medicare’s important role in providing women with health care coverage. It examines the demographic profile of women on Medicare, including their health and income status, the program’s benefits and cost-sharing requirements, and the prevalence of supplemental coverage to fill gaps in Medicare’s coverage. Fact Sheet (.pdf)
Community health centers play an important role in providing care to uninsured and low-income individuals living in medically underserved communities. They rely on many different revenue sources and, over time, Medicaid has become a central source of funding for most health centers. To better understand how Medicaid influences health center practice, this paper compares the strength of health centers in states that have expanded Medicaid coverage for adults to health centers states with more limited…
This report, prepared by Marilyn Moon of The Urban Institute and Robert Friedland and Lee Shirey of Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society, reviews the income and assets of the current Medicare population, provides an overview of asset tests used to determine eligibility for programs assisting low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and considers how alternative policy options would affect eligibility for these programs. The authors find that beneficiaries with low incomes tend to have minimal assets.…
This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a detailed side-by-side comparison of the prescription drug provisions of the Conference Agreement (H.R. 1) passed by the House and Senate in November 2003 and the House (H.R. 1) and Senate (S. 1) Medicare proposals passed in June 2003. Report (.pdf)
The issue paper provides data on the demographic profile of health center patients and the revenue sources available for financing their care, including recent increases in federal discretionary funding. It examines the impact of the recent economic downturn on health centers in selected communities, exploring the effect of elevated unemployment levels among lower wage workers, declining private health insurance coverage, and widespread cutbacks in Medicaid--the single most important source of health center financing. Issue Paper…
This report reviews the role of community health centers in the nation's health care safety net. Today, over 1,000 federally funded and “look-alike” health centers serve 14.3 million people, three-quarters of whom are uninsured or covered by Medicaid. As health centers look toward legislative reauthorization in 2006, they face several policy challenges reviewed in this report, including an increase in the uninsured populations, potential decreases in Medicaid revenue, and a need to increase health centers'…
The 2005 Kaiser Low-Income Coverage and Access Survey: Survey Methods and Baseline Tables This document details the methods used to develop the 2005 Kaiser Low-Income Coverage and Access Survey dataset and presents baseline tables on population demographics, overall and by health coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted this national survey to examine health insurance coverage, access to care and the impact of health costs on the low-income population. The majority of the uninsured are low-income,…
Spotlight on Low-Income Uninsured Young Adults: Causes and Consequences This brief is the latest in a series using data from the 2005 Kaiser Low-Income Coverage and Access Survey to examine health coverage, access, and financial burdens associated with health care for young adults ages 19 to 29 in low-income families. The findings demonstrate that many low-income uninsured young adults experience problems gaining access to needed health care, with adverse consequences for both their health and…
In 2009, despite the bleakest economic picture in years, states managed to safeguard and in some cases expand health coverage for children and parents in their Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's annual 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility rules, enrollment and renewal procedures and cost-sharing Practices. That was in large part due to the substantial help that states received through the congressional reauthorization of CHIP and the…
This policy brief uses the most recent available data to examine the patterns of health coverage for young adults after they turn 19 and typically are no longer eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Medicaid is a key source of coverage for children in the U.S., providing insurance to about 29 million at some point during the year. After turning 19, however, in many cases they lose their eligibility for Medicaid…
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