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  • Medicaid and the Budget Control Act: What Options Will Be Considered?

    Issue Brief

    On August 2, 2011, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 into law. The Act was designed to reduce federal spending and raise the debt ceiling. It established the Joint Select Committee, also known as the “Super Committee,” tasked with decreasing projected deficits by $1.5 trillion between FY2012 and FY2021. The Committee has broad authority to propose changes to meet its target, including changes to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, defense, taxes, and any…

  • Explaining Health Reform: Medicare and the New Independent Payment Advisory Board

    Issue Brief

    This brief describes how the new board created under the 2010 health reform law is expected to limit the growth in Medicare spending over time. Starting in 2014, if projected per capita Medicare spending exceeds targets set in the law, the board must recommend ways to reduce Medicare spending, while maintaining quality and access to care for beneficiaries. The board’s recommendations automatically take effect the next year unless Congress adopts an alternative plan to achieve…

  • Medicare Part D 2010 Data Spotlight: The Coverage Gap

    Report

    This data spotlight examines the coverage gap, or "doughnut hole," in Medicare stand-alone drug plans available in 2010. While in the gap in coverage, Part D enrollees (other than those receiving low-income subsidies) are required to pay 100 percent of total drug costs until they reach the catastrophic coverage level. In 2010, nearly all the private stand-alone drug plans have a coverage gap, though a small share do provide some help to beneficiaries in the…

  • Medicaid Financing Issues: Provider Taxes

    Fact Sheet

    Current law allows states to use revenue from provider taxes to help fund the state share of spending on Medicaid, a program that is jointly financed by the states and the federal government. Almost all states have at least one provider tax in place. This issue brief reviews the use of provider taxes by states as a mechanism for financing the state share of Medicaid spending. It also explores the implications of recent proposed changes…

  • Raising Medicare Premiums for Higher-Income Beneficiaries: Assessing the Implications

    Issue Brief

    As policymakers consider ways to slow the growth in Medicare spending as part of broader efforts to reduce the federal debt or offset the cost of other spending priorities, some have proposed to increase beneficiary contributions through higher Medicare premiums. This issue brief explains provisions of current law that impose income-related premiums under Medicare Part B and Part D, describes recent proposals to modify these requirements, and analyzes the potential implications for the Medicare population.

  • To Hospitalize or Not to Hospitalize? Medical Care for Long-Term Care Facility Residents

    Report

    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 residents' physicians for care instructions on nights and weekends, better and more timely access to diagnostic tests in hospitals, and patient preferences. Physicians with patients…

  • Raising Medicare’s Age of Eligibility to 67 Would Achieve Significant Savings, But Shift Costs To 65- and 66-Year-Olds, Other Individuals, Employers and Medicaid, New Analysis Shows

    News Release

    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 net savings to the federal government, but also result in an estimated net increase of $3.7 billion in out-of-pocket costs for 65- and 66-year-olds, and…

  • Inside Deficit Reduction: What It Means for Medicare

    Event Date:
    Event

    Proposals to generate Medicare savings abound, from the various commissions recommending change, members of Congress and others. Which proposals will, or should receive serious considerations by the Congressional super committee in its quest to find $1.2 trillion or more in savings by its November 23 deadline? What impact would these changes have on beneficiaries, providers and insurers? Would stakeholders prefer the automatic, but capped, Medicare reductions in the sequester rather than any recommendations on Medicare…

  • Inside Deficit Reduction: What It Means For Medicaid

    Event Date:
    Event

    This briefing, co-sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The SCAN Foundation, featured panelists discussing which deficit-reduction proposals affecting Medicaid might receive serious consideration by the congressional "super committee," as well as what kind of impact such changes would have on Medicaid enrollees, providers and state Medicaid programs. For more information, please visit the Alliance's event page. Full Video   Speakers for this session: The…

  • Best Bets for Reducing Medicare Costs for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: Assessing the Evidence

    Report

    With pressure mounting to slow the growth in federal health care spending, policymakers are exploring ways to reform the way care is delivered to the 9 million low-income Medicare beneficiaries who also receive Medicaid – a group that on average is sicker and frailer than other Medicare beneficiaries, and therefore receive significantly more care at greater cost. Major efforts are underway at the federal and state level to better coordinate care for this population and…