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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.…
Thirty-five percent of all California Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in a M+C plan, far in excess of the 14 percent rate nationwide. This report seeks to identify what lessons for the nation can be drawn from the California M+C experience, as Congress debates the implications of major withdrawals from the M+C program and potential policy changes aimed at reversing this trend. The report is based largely on analysis of M+C data on plan participation, withdrawals,…
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
These resources were prepared for a briefing held for journalists in New York City on November 4, 1997 in New York City as part of a joint program by The Alan Guttmacher Institute, The Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Press Foundation. This program focused on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, joint ventures, and other affiliations between Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals and health systems and the effect these affiliations have on access to reproductive health services.
This study analyzed five 1997 managed care consumer protection proposals currently or recently under consideration by the California state legislature: allowing consumers to sue their HMO (health maintenance organization) or managed care plan; expanding access to prescription drugs not approved by the health plan; expanded coverage of mental health services; direct access to obstetrical andgynecological services; and lengthened minimum hospital stays for mastectomy patients. Report: The Impact of Manged Care Legislation: An Analysis of Five…
An 8-page policy brief on the external review of health plan decisions to inform the policy debate in California and nationally. The policy brief covers external review systems in other states and the Medicare program, the current status of external review in California, and issues regarding the design and implementation of external review. Policy Brief: External Review of Health Plan Decisions Policy Brief: External Review of Health Plan Decisions
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:…
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…
To provide individuals and families access to affordable, high-quality health care, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands Medicaid to cover low-income adults and children with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty line. Millions of low-income parents, non-disabled adults who do not have dependent children (and who are generally ineligible for Medicaid today except in a small number of states) and, in some instances, children now covered through the Children’s Health…
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