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In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal‘s Think Tank, Drew Altman explains why prescription drug spending may be a larger share of health spending than most people think, depending on how you look at it. All previous columns by Drew Altman are online.
At 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, January 21, the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a public briefing to present findings from our 14th annual 50-state survey of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment, renewal, and cost-sharing policies. The survey, conducted by the Foundation’s Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) and Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, provides new data on states’ Medicaid eligibility and enrollment policies, which have undergone significant change in the two…
Though Congress last year failed to repeal key Affordable Care Act requirements for non-group health insurance that people buy themselves, the Trump Administration and some states are promoting other types of plans through regulatory changes that would allow the sale of products that skirt many of the ACA’s requirements. A new Kaiser Family Foundation brief examines four of those options and the tradeoffs involved if such loosely regulated markets take root as an alternative to…
In 2019, more than 20 million Medicare beneficiaries (34%) are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, which are mainly HMOs and PPOs offered by private insurers as an alternative to the traditional Medicare program. This issue brief provides an overview of the Medicare Advantage plans that will be available in 2019, including the variation in the number of plans available by county and plan type. The brief also examines the insurers entering the Medicare Advantage market…
This analysis examines the extent to which states are providing health benefits to their Medicare-eligible retirees through Medicare Advantage arrangements. In 2024, a majority of states offer Medicare Advantage plans to their state retirees, with 13 offering Medicare Advantage exclusively.
This brief provides information about Medicare Advantage plans in 2026, including premiums, out-of-pocket limits, supplemental benefits, and prior authorization, as well as trends over time.
Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage is available for people with Medicare who enroll in private plans, either a stand-alone prescription drug plan (PDP) for people in traditional Medicare, or a Medicare Advantage plan that covers all Medicare benefits, including prescription drugs (MA-PD). This issue brief provides an overview of Part D plan availability and premiums in 2024 and key trends over time.
With open enrollment underway, Medicare beneficiaries have until December 7th to review and select their coverage for 2024. They also have a lot of options to choose from, as two new KFF analyses show. For many beneficiaries, the first decision is whether to enroll in traditional Medicare (often with supplemental coverage and a stand-alone prescription drug plan) or Medicare Advantage, the private plans sponsored by insurance companies that now cover more than half of all…
In this JAMA Health Forum post, Executive Vice President Larry Levitt recalls the mid-1990s’ public backlash against Health Maintenance Organizations (commonly known as HMOs) – all of which preceded the recent outpouring of health insurance concerns – as well as how consumer protections against coverage restrictions have evolved and fallen short.
This brief examines how Part D enrollees’ access to and utilization of the first set of 10 selected drugs could be affected by the new Part D coverage and formulary requirements for selected drugs established by the Inflation Reduction Act and in CMS guidance, as well as the potential for lower out-of-pocket costs.
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