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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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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 March 2007 issue brief, commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, provides a basic introduction to the reimbursement system for private Medicare drug plans.
Medicare Coverage and Financing Download a printable .pdf of Health Care and the 2004 Elections: Medicare Coverage and Financing. IssueBackgroundPolicy Challenges Facing MedicareAssessing Candidate PositionsIssue The Medicare program is a valuable source of health insurance coverage for more than 41 million Americans.
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.
Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Foundation, and Larry Levitt, Senior Vice President, co-authored a Washington Post op-ed that examined how the economy affects the nation’s health spending.
With Medicaid being the focus of federal and state debate on deficits, the Kaiser Family Foundation's President and CEO examines recent poll findings about the program's popularity that may be a surprise considering the current discussion.
Foundation Senior Vice President Tricia Neuman testified June 26, 2013 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health about Medicare’s benefit design, and the implications of possible changes for beneficiaries, other stakeholders, and program spending.
Several major deficit-reduction and entitlement reform proposals include raising Medicare's age of eligibility from 65 to 67 as a way of improving Medicare's solvency.
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 role and the ways in which they operate are often debated by policymakers and the public alike. As the programs reach their 50th year, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationally representative survey of Americans to explore the public’s views of these programs, their experiences as beneficiaries, and their opinions on proposals for future changes.
The health reform law contains provisions that aim to improve the delivery and coordination of services for persons enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare, known as the dual eligibles. This population includes individuals with some of the most severely disabling chronic conditions.
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