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In June, 1999, the Supreme Court rule in Olmstead v L.C. that states were required to provide services to persons with disabilities in community settings rather than institutions, if certain conditions were met. This Policy Brief provides an overview of the Olmstead case, including the facts, the court ruling, and the disposition of the case.
A study of California, Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, and Utah CHIP programs show that the states have features in place for special needs children, but problems of provider availability and service authorization did sometimes occur. This is the first in a series of reports on implementation issues and challenges in the first year of CHIP.
Medicare is a critical source of health insurance coverage for virtually all older women in the U.S. and for many younger women who have permanent disabilities. Because women have longer life expectancies than men, more than half (57%) of the people covered by the program are women.
This report analyzes data from a survey of 42 low-income families with children with moderate or severe disabilities to better understand the impact of welfare reform on health coverage for these families.
This fact sheet provides an overview of the role of Medicare and Medicaid in serving these beneficiaries, describes the health status of dual Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries, and discusses issues of managed care and access to care.This fact sheet is a summary of a longer Background Paper (#2132), which is also available.
Consumer Direction of Personal Assistance Services in Medicaid: A Review of Four State Programs Medicaid consumer direction of personal assistance services (CD-PAS) is a growing trend. Although overall enrollment in these programs is small, 42 states offered consumer direction in Medicaid in 2006.
Some critics of Medicaid expansion have argued that expansion diverts resources away from other groups of Medicaid enrollees, including people with disabilities and children, and that expansion enrollees are “able-bodied” implying they have minimal health care needs. However, data show that expansion states spend more per enrollee overall and on each eligibility group than non-expansion states and that nearly half of expansion enrollees have a chronic condition. This data note analyzes 2021 Medicaid claims data to compare utilization of health care services among Medicaid expansion enrollees with other Medicaid enrollees in expansion states and to compare utilization of health care services among adult Medicaid enrollees living in expansion and non-expansion states.
KFF’s Survey of Medicaid Financial Eligibility for Older Adults & People with Disabilities, conducted in March 2025 by KFF and Watts Health Policy Consulting, provides a baseline of Medicaid eligibility as states return to normal operations after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and ahead of potential changes to the Medicaid program.
Hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Alliance for Health Reform, this briefing reviewed basic questions about the Medicare program, such as: What services does Medicare provide, and how does Medicare pay for these services? How is Medicare financed? What changes did the Affordable Care Act (ACA) make to Medicare? How fast is Medicare spending growing? What are current proposals to strengthen Medicare for the future, and what are prospects for action in the new Congress?
This slideshow explains key elements of the Medicare program, which now provides health coverage to 55 million people — including 46 million people age 65 and older and another 9 million younger adults with permanent disabilities.
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