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  • Restructuring Medicare’s Benefit Design: Implications for Beneficiaries and Spending

    Report

    Several deficit-reduction plans have proposed combining Medicare's separate deductibles for hospital and physician services, standardizing cost sharing across types of benefits, and establishing a new limit on annual out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries. A new Kaiser Family Foundation study examines the potential implications of proposals to revamp Medicare’s cost-sharing requirements as a way of reducing federal spending. The analysis projects what would happen if Medicare's current benefit design were replaced with a unified deductible of $550;…

  • Transforming Medicare into a Premium Support System: Implications for Beneficiary Premiums

    Report

    This study illustrates why geography would matter for Medicare beneficiaries under a premium support system that relies on a competitive bidding process envisioned under several key Medicare reform proposals. It examines potential changes in the premiums paid by Medicare beneficiaries under a payment approach that caps federal contributions per beneficiary based on the cost of the second lowest-bidding private plan or traditional Medicare, whichever is lower in their area. Under this approach, beneficiaries can choose…

  • The News Media and “Entitlement Reform”

    From Drew Altman

    In the coming debate about the deficit, policymakers will struggle to craft a package of spending reductions and new revenues that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on, totaling as much as four trillion dollars over ten years.  Medicare, Medicaid and potentially the Affordable Care Act will have their turn on the operating table as policymakers look for savings.  It is unclear what reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending policymakers will be able to agree…

  • Medigap Reforms: Potential Effects of Benefit Restrictions on Medicare Spending and Beneficiary Costs

    Report

    As part of several debt-reduction and Medicare-reform proposals, some policymakers propose to prohibit Medicare supplemental insurance policies (known as Medigap) from covering all of enrollees' out-of-pocket Medicare costs, which some believe leads to higher use of services and higher Medicare spending. Such changes would expose Medigap enrollees – currently about one in six Medicare beneficiaries – to a larger share of Medicare's cost-sharing requirements. This analysis commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation examines three potential…

  • Medigap Reform: Setting the Context for Understanding Recent Proposals

    Issue Brief

    This brief presents the most current data available on the Medicare supplemental insurance (Medigap) market, including enrollment and premiums by state and plan type, analyzes how many beneficiaries have first dollar coverage (particularly Plans C and F), and describes recent Medigap proposals that have emerged as part of efforts to reduce Medicare spending and the national debt.

  • Poll Finds Bipartisan Public Support For Creating State Insurance Exchanges Despite Continuing Party Divisions Over the ACA

    News Release

    More Americans Back Than Oppose State Medicaid Expansions But, Like Many Governors, Public Splits Along Party Lines On The Federal Deficit, Public Wants Action But Still Resists Most Cuts and Sacrifices, Especially to Medicare A majority of Americans put the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges at the top of the priority list for health policy in their state this year, according to a survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood…

  • Medicare And Medicaid At 50

    Poll Finding

    Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 30, 1965 in a bipartisan effort to provide health insurance coverage for low-income, disabled, and elderly Americans. In their 50 year history, each of these programs has come to play a key role in providing health coverage to millions of Americans today and make up a significant component of federal and state budgets. As major programs both in size and scope, their…

  • The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress

    Poll Finding

    As the 113th Congress is sworn in, and President Barack Obama begins his second term of office, a comprehensive new Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health survey queried the public about their priorities for, and views on, a wide range of health and health policy issues. These include issues that will preoccupy federal lawmakers, such as the role of Medicare in the deficit reduction debate, as well as issues currently being…

  • Medicare 101: What You Need to Know

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation present a briefing to discuss the basics of Medicare, its role in the health care system, and how the program has evolved over time. Speakers address questions on how the program is administered, how much it costs and how it is financed. A short video produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation, "The History of Medicare: A Timeline," will be shown at the event. For more…

  • Most Americans Oppose Converting Medicaid to a Block Grant in Order to Reduce the Federal Deficit

    News Release

    New Poll Finds Support For Medicaid May Be Linked to Broad Ties To The Program, With Half of Americans Reporting A Personal Connection 1 in 5 Adults Has Received Medicaid Benefits Over Time, And For Most, Experiences Were Positive, Although One Third Of Them Report Having Had Problems Finding A Doctor MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Most Americans oppose the idea of converting Medicaid to block grant financing to reduce the federal deficit, and more than…