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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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This issue brief reflects on lessons learned from research about the connection between welfare policies and low-income women's health. The brief discusses the multiple aspects of the TANF program that can influence women's health and well-being, including access to health insurance, work requirements and training options, links to health care services, and reproductive health provisions. Issue Brief
A June 2003 supplement of Medical Care Research and Review presents a compelling case that health insurance does lead to improved health and better access to care. The supplement, with Thomas Rice as guest editor, includes four commentaries on the topic by John Ayanian, Stuart Butler, Karen Davis, and Richard Kronick. The supplement, published by Sage Publications and supported by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU), features Jack Hadley s exhaustive review…
This issue brief examines women's roles in family health care decision-making and coordination, the effect of that involvement for women who work, and women's caregiving responsibilities. This analysis is based on data from the 2001 Kaiser Women's Health Survey, a nationally representative sample of nearly 4,000 women between the ages of 18 and 64. Issue brief (.pdf) News Release: Mothers Still Carry Primary Responsibility for Family Health -- Tradeoffs Between Caring for Children and Job Earnings…
Understanding how Medicare+Choice (M+C) plans manage their drug benefits may generate important lessons for Medicare. This report, based on interviews with both national and regional managed care firms, provides an in-depth look at how plans have managed their M+C outpatient pharmacy benefits in recent years. Findings show that plans rely on a number of cost management strategies to constrain the growth in drug spending including formularies, tiered-copayments, mail-order benefits, and fixed caps or dollar limits…
Public and private sector organizations are involved in a number of activities that seek to reduce cultural and communication barriers to health care. These activities are often described as cultural competency and/or cross-cultural education. A recent Institute of Medicine report recommended that the health care system pursue several of these techniques as part of a multi-level strategy to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in medical care. To address this need, the Henry J. Kaiser Family…
Numerous studies over the past two decades have documented racial and ethnic differences in care for heart conditions. To assess the quality of the evidence and to summarize the information for a physician audience, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation collaborated with the American College of Cardiology Foundation to review the body of research on racial/ethnic differences in cardiac care. There is credible evidence that minority patients are less likely than white patients to receive…
A new study conducted by researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund, reports results from a 2001 survey of 10,927 noninstitutionalized seniors in eight geographically diverse states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. State-level data on drug coverage, medication use, out-of-pocket costs, and cost-related medication skipping among community-dwelling seniors are highlighted to examine how coverage and experiences differ by state and how…
Analyses of the Child Health Plan and Other Kaiser Permanente Services for Publicly and Privately Insured Children, a new policy brief prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation by the Institute for Health Policy Studies at U.C. San Francisco, summarizes the results and policy implications of four different analyses comparing the experiences of children enrolled through Kaiser Permanente in the Child Health Plan, Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, and commercial programs. The aggregate…
Underinsured in America: Is Health Coverage Adequate? This fact sheet examines the adequacy of health insurance coverage of the insured and focuses on the consequences and future policy challenges of what some experts have defined as "underinsurance." Fact Sheet
This video features five older women who reside in an assisted living community in Washington, DC, as they share their experiences in the Medicare program and offer their insights on ways the program could be improved to better meet the health care needs of seniors. Please note: the video is no longer available. If you have an urgent need for the video, you may contact us (choose “problem with video” on the form) and we…
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