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Wednesday, Sept. 8, the Foundation held a policy workshop examining Medicare, health reform and the challenges facing people with disabilities. Younger Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities are much more likely than seniors in the program to report problems accessing and paying for needed medical services, Kaiser Family Foundation researchers report in this Health Affairs article.
The share of seniors without drug coverage dropped significantly under Medicare’s new drug benefit, according to this August 2007 Health Affairs Web Exclusive article based on a Kaiser Family Foundation, Commonwealth Fund and Tufts-New England Medical Center survey of more than 16,000 seniors.
To financially qualify for Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS), an individual must have a low income and limited assets. In response to concerns that these rules could leave a spouse without adequate means of support when a married individual needs LTSS, Congress created the spousal impoverishment rules in 1988. Originally, these rules required states to protect a portion of a married couple’s income and assets to provide for the “community spouse’s” living expenses when determining nursing home financial eligibility, but gave states the option to apply the rules to home and community-based services (HCBS) waivers.
Section 2404 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed the spousal impoverishment rules to treat Medicaid HCBS and institutional care equally from January 2014 through December 2018. Congress subsequently extended Section 2404 through December 2019. This issue brief answers key questions about the spousal impoverishment rules, presents 50-state data from a 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation survey about state policies and future plans in this area, and considers the implications if Congress does not further extend Section 2404.
This issue paper updates the July 1999 report and provides a general overview of federal Medicaid eligibility policy for the low-income disabled population.
This Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured video segment returns to the plaintiffs of the Olmstead case five years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision. It reports on the impact of the decision for individuals with disabilities and some of the challenges that remain in the implementation of the court ruling.
This data note presents findings from the 2024 KFF Women’s Health Survey on women’s experiences with disrespectful and unfair treatment as well as negative interactions with providers during health care visits in the past two years.
Key Implementation Dates for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit This timeline presents important dates and deadlines of key implementation activities related to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). It runs from the beginning of 2005 through the end of 2006, the first year of the new Medicare drug benefit.
This case study looks at Washington state's Money Follows the Person demonstration program, Roads to Community Living. The program is responsible for assisting over 2,400 Medicaid beneficiaries with complex long-term services and supports (LTSS) needs in transitioning out of institutions back to community-based care settings.
The availability of employer-sponsored retiree health benefits from large companies has declined since 1991, according to a new study conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation by Hewitt Associates LLC.
Medicaid's Disabled Population and Managed Care This fact sheet highlights the key facts about the Medicaid managed care programs that serve persons with disabilities. It describes the Medicaid disabled population and the role managed care plays in serving them.
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