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Affordability of coverage remains a persistent problem for some who have gained coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Using data from the 2014 Kaiser Survey of Low-Income Americans, this brief examines the factors that may be contributing to affordability challenges among those with coverage through the Marketplace.
This issue brief provides an overview of Medicare, the health insurance program for people ages 65 and over and younger people with long-term disabilities. The brief review the characteristics of people on Medicare, what Medicare covers, benefit gaps and supplemental coverage, beneficiaries' out-of-pocket health care spending, program spending and financing, payment and delivery system reform, and issues for the future of Medicare.
This slideshow explores the variation in health spending across the population through an analysis of the 2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data. It finds that 5% of the population with the highest health expenditures accounted for nearly half of total health spending in the United States. It also examines spending variation by age, gender, race, insurance status and presence of certain health conditions.
This policy insight examines medical debt among insured consumers, exploring how high cost sharing in health insurance plans can contribute, and explaining how greater transparency could help consumers avoid some financial pitfalls. It also provides an update on provisions of the Affordable Care Act meant to increase health plan transparency and bolster consumer assistance.
In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman explains why recent discussion of Harvard University’s introduction of new health insurance cost sharing measures amounted to “making a mountain out of a mole hill”.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued its long-awaited report on defining the essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released guidance on the two key components that determine the level of protection that private insurance plans will provide to consumers under health reform.
This fall a new rule takes effect requiring all private health plans to offer a uniform, simple to read, summary of benefits and coverage (SBC). The SBC will provide consumers with standardized information about how plans cover essential health benefits and what coverage limits and cost sharing applies.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires most private plans to provide coverage for women’s preventive health care, including all prescribed FDA-approved contraceptive services, without cost sharing. To better understand how this provision is being implemented by health plans, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) staff, with the Lewin Group, reviewed the insurance plan coverage policies for 12 prescribed contraceptive methods (excluding oral contraceptives). This report presents information from 20 different insurance carriers in five states (California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas) about how they are applying reasonable medical management (RMM) techniques in their coverage of women’s contraceptive services. The different forms of female birth control reviewed in this report include the contraceptive ring, the patch, injections, implants, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and sterilization.
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