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One of the key challenges in enacting a health care reform plan is how to finance it among government, employers, and individuals. Of particular concern to policymakers is what effect a health reform plan would have on government spending and the federal budget.
In what would be a domestic policy trifecta, we may be headed for interconnected big debates about economic recovery, entitlement programs and health reform. A core issue in the entitlement and health reform debates is the problem of rising health care costs.
The Distributional Consequences of a Medicare Premium Support Proposal This article analyzes the expected distributional impact of enacting a premium support proposal for Medicare based on legislation introduced by Sen. Breaux and Sen. Frist in 1999. This legislation suggested that the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan be used as a model for Medicare.
This data note draws primarily on two national surveys, the September Kaiser Health Tracking Poll and the Kaiser 2012 National Survey of Seniors, to examine how health issues are playing as a 2012 election issue for seniors, how this politically important group feels about a variety of policy proposals related to Medicare, including the premium…
The June Kaiser Health Tracking Poll examines the opinions of seniors and the public about Medicare and the federal budget deficit, a topic of heightened interest these days as policymakers in Washington focus on ways to bring down Medicare spending as part of efforts to reduce the deficit.
This Kaiser Family Foundation briefing examined how Medicare reform options now under consideration might work and their implications for beneficiaries and taxpayers.
New: Medicare Advantage Plan Star Ratings and Bonus Payments in 2012 In 2012, Medicare Advantage plans will be awarded additional payments based on their quality ratings as a result of the 2010 health reform law.
This Part D Data Spotlight documents the wide variations across the private stand-alone drug plans with respect to coverage of drugs, what enrollees pay for those drugs, and restrictions and limitations placed on their use. These variations have potentially significant implications for beneficiaries’ access to medications and out-of-pocket costs.
UPDATED: An updated version of this analysis is now available online. Recent policy debate has focused on the issue of rising health care costs and whether it might be possible to control costs by requiring consumers to pay a larger share of their health care costs out of pocket.
This brief summarizes key findings from the full collection of 2010 Part D Data Spotlights examining key trends in the private stand-alone drug plans available to Medicare beneficiaries. The spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the Medicare Part D drug plans that will be available to beneficiaries in 2010.
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