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  • A Primer on Medicare Financing

    Issue Brief

    As Congress and the Administration increasingly focus on the nation’s budget deficit, many policy experts and several bipartisan deficit reduction panels have proposed significant changes to Medicare to reduce federal spending and address rising health care costs. This primer provides an overview of Medicare spending trends, how the program is financed, and factors contributing to the growth in Medicare spending. Medicare now covers 47 million seniors and younger people with disabilities, with total expenditures of…

  • Pulling it Together: When Premiums Go Up 39%

    Perspective

    Our group that works on health care cost issues just updated an analysis that sheds light on what’s really happening to people in the individual health insurance market, the issue Secretary Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner, and others have put in the spotlight by calling on Anthem and other insurance companies to account for their proposed high premium increases. The analysis shows that people buying health insurance on their own in the individual market…

  • Pulling it Together: An Actuarial Rorschach Test

    Perspective

    Drew Altman, Larry Levitt, Gary Claxton My colleagues have worked on this column with me and I invited them to join me as authors. As with pretty much every other discussion of health care going back to the days of Roosevelt, the great reform debate of 2009 (and now 2010) has been distilled into an ideological battle over the role of government. A government-sponsored "public option" has been off the table for a while now,…

  • The President’s FY 2005 Budget Proposal:  Overview and Briefing Charts

    Report

    The President's FY 2005 Budget Proposal: Overview and Briefing Charts The overview and briefing charts present information on the President's FY 2005 budget proposal to Congress beginning with federal surplus/deficit spending historical data and a summary of the overall composition of the Administration's budget request. The charts then detail information on the President's funding proposals for major health programs. Overview & Briefing Charts (.pdf)

  • 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…

  • Long-term Services and Supports: A Rebalancing Act

    Event Date:
    Event

    The ongoing debate over the federal budget and deficit reduction presents a balancing act for policymakers, as many compelling interests compete for scarce dollars. But for 10 million older adults and people with disabilities who need long-term services and supports, there is a "rebalancing act" in progress. The aim is to serve more people at home and in the community, and fewer people in institutions. Are there sufficient home- and community-based programs in all states…

  • KFF April Tracking Poll: Opinions of Reform Remain Steady

    Perspective

    This month, public opinion on the health reform law continues to be remarkably steady. The April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that four in ten feel favorably about the law and an equal share say they feel unfavorably. In recent months there has been a slight decline in the share with an unfavorable view of the law, with a corresponding uptick in the share who offer no opinion on the law. The rise in those…

  • Medicare Part D 2010 Data Spotlights

    Issue Brief

    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 examine relevant trends since the Medicare drug benefit took effect in 2006. They were prepared by a team of researchers at Georgetown University, NORC and…

  • Medicare Spending Limits: Issues and Implications

    Issue Brief

    Several major deficit-reduction plans include provisions that would impose an explicit limit on the growth in Medicare spending. In general, such limits would trigger cuts if Medicare spending grows more rapidly than a target, such as the growth in the economy. This brief prepared for the Kaiser Family Foundation describes and analyzes various approaches to setting and enforcing limits on Medicare spending. It looks at how proposed spending limits might work if Medicare spending per…

  • Assessing the Effects of the Economy on the Recent Slowdown in Health Spending

    Issue Brief

    Introduction Health spending has been growing at historically low levels in recent years. The Office of the Actuary (OACT) in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that national health spending grew by 3.9% each year from 2009 to 2011, the lowest rate of growth since the federal government began keeping such statistics in 1960. Estimates from the Center for Sustainable Health Spending at the Altarum Institute suggest that the slowdown largely continued into 2012, with health spending…