Deficit Reduction

Medicare and the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 Budget ProposalThis fact sheet summarizes key Medicare-related provisions in the Bush Administration’s fiscal year 2009 budget proposal, as well as additional legislation that responds to the Medicare Trustees’ “Medicare Funding Warning.” Fact Sheet (.pdf)

This March 2007 issue brief, commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, provides a basic introduction to the reimbursement system for private Medicare drug plans. It explains the system of plan bidding and payment, including the special provisions for low-income enrollees, and considers how aspects of the payment system may affect…

Medicare Coverage and Financing Download a printable .pdf of Health Care and the 2004 Elections: Medicare Coverage and Financing. IssueBackgroundPolicy Challenges Facing MedicareAssessing Candidate PositionsIssueThe Medicare program is a valuable source of health insurance coverage for more than 41 million Americans. Medicare enjoys broad public support, but the program faces…

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. While…

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. President Obama, now apparently fully briefed on the…

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. President Obama and Congressional leaders have said…

The Kaiser Family Foundation has issued a collection of analyses related to the Part D Medicare stand-alone drug plan options available to seniors for calendar year 2010. Each of these spotlights focuses on a key aspect of the drug plans that will be available to Medicare beneficiaries in 2010 and…

To Hospitalize or Not to Hospitalize? Medical Care for Long-Term Care Facility Residents This report explores factors that appear to drive relatively high rates of hospitalizations, based on interviews with doctors, nursing home staff and families in four cities. Key factors include liability concerns, limited onsite staff capabilities, difficulty reaching…

Study Estimates Two in Three People Ages 65 and 66 Would Pay $2,200 More On Average For Health Care in 2014 Than They Would If They Remained in Medicare MENLO PARK, Calif. — Raising Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67 in 2014 would generate an estimated $5.7 billion in…

Health care, and particularly Medicare and Medicaid, continue to play a role in the national discussion over the federal budget deficit. In the midst of this debate, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking poll finds that Americans of all political stripes see a role for both spending reductions and tax increases…