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KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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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.
Medicaid: Purchasing Prescription Drugs A policy brief explaining how Medicaid purchases outpatient drugs and outlining the policy tools available to states to limit the rate of growth in spending on prescription drugs. Policy Brief (28 pages)
This report, prepared by Marilyn Moon of The Urban Institute and Robert Friedland and Lee Shirey of Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society, reviews the income and assets of the current Medicare population, provides an overview of asset tests used to determine eligibility for programs assisting low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and considers how alternative policy options would affect eligibility for these programs. The authors find that beneficiaries with low incomes tend to have minimal assets.…
This report analyzes data from a survey of 42 low-income families with children with moderate or severe disabilities to better understand the impact of welfare reform on health coverage for these families. Report
Protection in Managed Care Plans: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Proposed Federal Legislation. A side-by-side comparison of the provisions for consumer protection in managed care plans contained in the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills and in eight other consumer protection bills currently under consideration by Congress. These bills, which would increase the regulatory oversight of the managed care industry by the federal government, are compared in 22 different categories of managed care issues. Report Report
Medicare Beneficiaries: A Population at RiskFindings from the Kaiser/Commonwealth Fund 1997 Survey of Medicare Beneficiaries Cathy Schoen, Patricia Neuman, Michelle Kitchman, Karen Davis, and Diane RowlandDecember 1998 Table Of ContentsExecutive Summary Findings from the Kaiser/Commonwealth 1997 Survey of Medicare Beneficiaries Medicare Beneficiaries: Health Status and Income Health Insurance Coverage Satisfaction, Access, and Financial Burden: Variations by Income Prescription Drugs: Use and Cost Exposure Satisfaction, Access, and Financial Burden: Variations by Type of Insurance Coverage HMOs:…
Warning: Inadequate Low-Income Subsidy Design Can Cause Problems for Health Care Reform This report examines potential adverse consequences of low-income subsidy systems contained in the leading health care reform approaches including: work disincentives as a result of high marginal taxrates; employer incentives to drop coverage; and loss of coverage due to budgetary control mechanisms. Note: This publication is no longer in circulation. However, a copy may still exist in the Foundation's internal library that could…
Nearly a quarter (23%) of adults who say they were disenrolled from Medicaid since early 2023 report being uninsured now, finds a new KFF national survey examining how the unwinding affected enrollees. Overall, 19% of adults who had Medicaid prior to the start of unwinding say they were disenrolled at some point in the past year. Of this group, a large majority (70%) were left at least temporarily uninsured, while 30% already had another form…
A growing number of states have added Medicaid coverage of non-traditional pregnancy-related care and services in recent years, such as doula services, lactation services, and home visiting programs, to promote better maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce racial/ethnic health disparities. This brief explores state strategies and challenges in promoting access to these services.
This policy watch examines the implications of North Carolina's Medicaid expansion as well as key issues to watch there and across other states.
At the beginning of 2024, nine months into states’ efforts to unwind the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision and reverify enrollees’ eligibility, states have completed renewals for less than half of all enrollees. To gain a better understanding of what challenges states are facing and the effects of different unwinding strategies, KFF interviewed state Medicaid officials in Arizona, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, as well as others involved, including representatives from Medicaid, managed care plans, legal aid organizations,…
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