Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman examines the problems many Americans with health insurance are having paying medical bills based on a new Kaiser-New York Times Survey, and discusses why the issue of the adequacy of insurance coverage is gaining traction.
Larry Levitt’s February 2016 post explains how “surprise medical bills” — unanticipated charges for out-of-network care – can happen. It describes some government approaches to the issue and outlines the challenges to protecting consumers. The post is now available at The JAMA Forum.
As Washington continues to search for long-term solutions to reduce federal spending, with Medicare often at the forefront of these discussions, the Kaiser Family Foundation held a policy briefing Wednesday, Jan. 30, at 9:30 a.m. to explore options that could be considered to reduce Medicare spending, and their implications for…
A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis and chartbook break down what beneficiaries with traditional Medicare pay for their health care, including insurance premiums, and costs for medical and long-term care services. The analysis highlights the significant variations in what people pay based on the services they use, and their age,…
In this Policy Insight, the Foundation’s Cristina Boccuti and Tricia Neuman examine how Congress’ effort to permanently stave off scheduled cuts in Medicare’s physician payments could affect what Medicare beneficiaries pay for their care — both in premiums and in other potential changes — to offset the cost of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) “doc fix.”
This report examines the causes and contributors to medical debt, medical bankruptcy, and other difficulties with medical bills among people with insurance. Through in-depth interviews of nearly two-dozen people and quantitative analysis of national survey data, the authors of this report find that in-network and out-of-net-work cost sharing primarily contribute to medical debt among the insured.
This issue brief, Coverage of Abortion Services and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), summarizes the major coverage provisions of the ACA that are relevant for women of reproductive age, reviews current federal and state policies on Medicaid and insurance coverage of abortion services as they relate to the ACA, and presents national and state estimates on the availability of abortion coverage for women who are newly eligible for Medicaid or private coverage through the Marketplaces as a result of the ACA.
A Health Affairs blog post by Jennifer Kates and Rachel Garfield examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on people with HIV/AIDS.
The slide show provides an initial look at the deductibles for medical care and the specific deductibles applied to prescription drugs for the plans offered in the federally facilitated and partnership Marketplaces for 2015 operating with healthcare.gov.
Almost 50 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2010 — about a million more than in 2009. Who are the uninsured? Why do so many Americans lack coverage? What are the trends in coverage among different segments of the population? What do these trends mean for the health care system…
