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State Health Facts is a KFF project that provides free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States. It offers data on specific types of health insurance coverage, including employer-sponsored, Medicaid, Medicare, as well as people who are uninsured by demographic characteristics, including age, race/ethnicity, work status, gender, and income. There are also data on health insurance status for a state's population overall and broken down by age, gender, and income.
This report analyzes recently enacted laws in Texas and Missouri that expand consumers' ability to sue their HMOs or other managed care plans for inappropriately denied care or similar problems. Report Report
A growing trend by state legislatures to pass tough regulations on abortion services begs the questions: Do these rules help to ensure the health and safety of abortion patients and the quality of abortion services? Or, as some abortion rights groups have suggested, are they designed to put abortion providers out of business? National Committee for Quality Assurance Chief Executive Officer, Margaret O'Kane, National Abortion Federation Committee on Quality Improvement Chair, Dr. Bernard Smith, and…
Native Americans and Medicaid:Coverage and Financing Issues Medicaid and Welfare Until 1996, families with children who received cash assistance under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program were automatically entitled to Medicaid coverage. The welfare law enacted that year, Public Law 104-193, repealed the AFDC program and created a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to the states. The 1996 welfare law also severed the automatic eligibility linkage between welfare and…
This document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a detailed side-by-side comparison of the prescription drug provisions of the Conference Agreement (H.R. 1) passed by the House and Senate in November 2003 and the House (H.R. 1) and Senate (S. 1) Medicare proposals passed in June 2003. Report (.pdf)
A study of American Indians' and Alaska Natives' access to health care, conducted by researchers from the Urban Institue, University of Arizona and the Kaiser Family Foundation, identifies some of the health policy challenges this population faces. The study was originally published in the Janurary issue of the American Journal of Public Health - a link to the abstract is listed below. Two additional documents were created to accompany the study. A fact sheet titled…
In 2000, Congress passed a landmark law that gave states the option of extending Medicaid coverage to certain low-income women with breast or cervical cancer. In California, approximately 10,000 women have been assisted by this program. This policy brief, "Hearing Their Voices: Lessons from the Breast and Cervical Caner Prevention and Treatment Act (BCCPTA)," reports on the impact of this program on low-income women in California, using focus group analysis. The report was…
This guide explains the critical role Medicare and Medicaid have come to play in the lives and the futures of roughly 20 million children, adults, and seniors with disabilities - and gives people with disabilities new information to help them get the most from these programs. Full PDF Report (.pdf) Section 1: Introduction HTML PDF Section 2: Medicare HTML PDF Section 3: Medicaid HTML PDF Section 4: Interaction Between Medicare and Medicaid HTML PDF
This comprehensive survey from USA Today, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health examines how Americans are being affected by health care costs. The survey includes information on the barriers health care costs pose to obtaining medical care and the alternative measures people take to lower their medical and prescription drug bills. The is based on a nationally representative sample of 1,531 adults ages 18 years and older, conducted between April…
Threadbare: Holes in America’s Health Care Safety Net This report describes the impact of coverage gaps in our safety net through the perspectives of those who provide care to the uninsured and first-hand accounts of the uninsured who are seeking care. Report (.pdf)
This report reviews the role of community health centers in the nation's health care safety net. Today, over 1,000 federally funded and “look-alike” health centers serve 14.3 million people, three-quarters of whom are uninsured or covered by Medicaid. As health centers look toward legislative reauthorization in 2006, they face several policy challenges reviewed in this report, including an increase in the uninsured populations, potential decreases in Medicaid revenue, and a need to increase health centers'…
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