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This analysis finds that, among people with large employer health plans, those with an obesity diagnosis on average have higher total and out-of-pocket spending than those without an obesity diagnosis. It also examines the cost of common surgical and pharmacological treatments for obesity.
Most Medicare Advantage enrollees are in plans that have waived cost sharing for COVID-19 treatment, and many other beneficiaries in traditional Medicare have their cost sharing covered by supplemental insurance. This blog post discusses the 6 million Medicare beneficiaries without supplemental coverage who would face out-of-pocket costs if they require treatment for COVID-19.
While privately insured people are eligible to have the cost of coronavirus testing covered 100% by their health plan, that doesn't mean that insured patients won’t be asked to pay up front for the cost of testing or that they can easily be reimbursed.
Michigan and Indiana, led by Republican governors, each obtained a waiver from the Obama Administration to expand Medicaid in ways that differ from the terms of the Affordable Care Act. Notably, both states’ expansions include provisions related to charging enrollees premiums, requiring them to contribute to health accounts and providing incentives to participate in healthy behavior programs, though the details and implementation vary considerably between the two states. A new analysis from the Kaiser Family…
In this April 2017 post, Larry Levitt discusses the current status of the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplaces, and explains how the Trump administration's choices -- including whether to continue cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers -- could influence stability of the marketplaces going forward. The post is now available at The JAMA Forum.
This chartpack presents a summary of Part D enrollment, premiums, cost sharing, benefit design and other key trends in 2016 and changes over time. For 2016, the analysis finds that 40% of Part D enrollees are now in Medicare Advantage drug plans, and over half of all enrollees are in plans offered by just three firms. The chartpack also highlights some concerning trends in the Low-Income Subsidy market, with the fewest number of premium-free plans…
This data note examines the effects of rising EpiPen prices on Medicare and beneficiaries. We analyze EpiPen spending, in the aggregate and per user, in Medicare Part D between 2007 (the year after the Part D drug benefit took effect, and the year Mylan acquired the product) and 2014 (the most recent year of data available).
In light of heightened attention to insulin and the Trump Administration’s new Part D model to address out-of-pocket costs for insulin for Medicare beneficiaries, we analyzed out-of-pocket spending on insulin by beneficiaries enrolled in Part D drug plans, variation in Part D plan formulary coverage and tier placement of insulin products, and trends in prices for insulin.
In an Axios column, Drew Altman previews new data highlighting that people with critical health issues are especially vulnerable to these bills.
This data note captures February 2020 poll findings on the public's worries about and experiences with unexpected and surprise medical bills.
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