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This issue brief provides an overview of the 2018 Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plan landscape, the largest segment of the Part D marketplace, It includes national and state-level data on plan availability, premiums, benefit design, cost sharing, information about premium-free plans for low-income beneficiaries, and information about the top ten Part D plans in 2018.
In a commentary on KFF’s 27th employer health benefits survey, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman discusses the obstacles employers face trying to control their health care costs, and the reasons why they’ve never been meaningful supporters of government cost-containment efforts. He predicts that premium increases expected next year could lead to a new wave of higher deductibles and other forms of cost sharing for the 155 million Americans who rely on employer coverage. Read the column here.
In 2018, three Medicare Part D plan sponsors—UnitedHealth, Humana, and CVS Health—account for more than half of the program’s 43 million Part D enrollees (55%) and two-thirds of all stand-alone drug plan enrollees, indicating a marketplace that is dominated by a handful of major insurers, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of Part…
A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation reviews what the research shows about the effects of premiums and cost sharing on low-income populations in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), drawing upon 65 peer-reviewed studies and government and research and policy organization reports and studies published between 2000 and March 2017.
This Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that for workers covered by their employer's health plans, out-of-pocket costs including deductibles and coinsurance have been increasing significantly faster than costs paid by insurers, reflecting a decade-long trend toward slightly less generous coverage.
With Medicare Part D nearing the end of its tenth year, the program -- which now provides drug coverage to 72 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries -- has experienced no growth in average premiums in recent years but some notable increases in cost-sharing, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
This issue brief examines states’ approaches to administering wrap-around benefits and cost-sharing in long-standing Medicaid premium assistance programs and the information available to beneficiaries about how to access these program features.
Standard Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, 2013 Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation illustration based on CMS standard benefit parameter update for 2013. Amounts rounded to nearest dollar.
This analysis examines the share of Medicare beneficiaries who would be helped over time if the program were to add a limit on out-of-pocket spending to traditional Medicare. This analysis was conducted jointly with the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in response to a request made during a Feb. 26, 2013 hearing of the House Ways and Means' Subcommittee on Health.
As part of an ongoing series to explore what is in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, this May 7 briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation examines how the reform law affects Medicare.
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