Conversation on Health Care and the 2018 Midterm Elections
Health care ranks among the top issues voters want to hear candidates talk about on the campaign trail, with costs being the most concerning health issue for voters.
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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.
Health care ranks among the top issues voters want to hear candidates talk about on the campaign trail, with costs being the most concerning health issue for voters.
The idea of expanding the role of government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid has received renewed attention on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail this year as policymakers consider ways to expand health insurance coverage and moderate health care costs. Lawmakers have introduced eight such proposals in the current Congress.
This issue brief compares eight Medicare-for-All and public plan option bills that have been introduced in the 115th Congress. The brief describes the range of proposals on the table and raises key questions related to how these proposals could affect coverage, out-of-pocket costs, existing coverage, payments to providers, as well as overall costs and financing, and potential tradeoffs.
The Kaiser Family Foundation held a reporters-only web briefing on Oct. 3, 2018, to release the 2018 benchmark Employer Health Benefits Survey. This 20th annual survey provides a detailed look at the current state of employer-based coverage and trends in private health insurance for both large and small firms.
uninsured-rate-among-the-nonelderly-population-1972-2018Q1white Download Source CDC/NCHS, National Health Interview Survey, reported in http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/health_policy/trends_hc_1968_2011.htm#table01 and https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/Insur201808.pdf.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis maps rates of pre-existing conditions across 129 metropolitan and micropolitan areas in the U.S., finding that even within the same state, the prevalence of such conditions can vary substantially.
In a Health Affairs blog post, Laurie Sobel, Caroline Rosenzweig and Alina Salganicoff of the Kaiser Family Foundation discuss the feasibility of abortion riders to private group and individual health plans as a means of providing access to abortion coverage when states ban the coverage as part of an insurance plan.
A quarter of people in traditional Medicare had private, supplemental health insurance in 2015—also known as Medigap—to help cover their Medicare deductibles and cost-sharing requirements, as well as protect themselves against catastrophic expenses for Medicare-covered services. This issue brief examines implications for older adults with pre-existing medical conditions who may be unable to purchase a Medigap policy or change their supplemental coverage after their initial open enrollment period.
Using data from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Episcopal Health Foundation 2018 Texas Health Policy Survey, this brief explores Texas residents’ experiences with health care affordability and access to care. It examines Texans’ difficulty affording health care compared to other basic needs, problems paying medical bills, and skipping or postponing care because of costs. It also explores the experiences of vulnerable groups like the uninsured and those with lower incomes.
Affording health care ranks at the top of Texans’ financial concerns, with more than half (55%) saying it is difficult for them and their families to afford health care, including a quarter (25%) who say it is “very difficult,” finds a new Kaiser Family Foundation/Episcopal Health Foundation poll of Texas residents.
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