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The 2025 reconciliation law makes sweeping changes to Medicaid that will affect every state through key eligibility and financing changes, including new work requirements, immigrant eligibility restrictions, and changes to provider taxes and state directed payments. This issue brief explains which states will be affected by each of these key provisions.
This chart pack summarizes KFF polling data on public opinion on Medicare-for-all and other national health plan proposals. The latest update finds that two-thirds of the public supports Medicare-for-all, while support changes drastically as respondents hear arguments from proponents and critics.
As part of an ongoing series to explore what is in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, this May 7 briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation examines how the reform law affects Medicare. Changes to Medicare were among the most hotly debated issues as the legislation was developed, and this briefing includes a detailed look at the…
In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act authorized the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to help control the growth in Medicare costs. Beginning in 2014, IPAB will issue recommendations to lower Medicare costs in the event that spending exceeds targets established in the health care reform law. This brief explains how the Independent Payment Advisory Board will be structured, the process and timelines for IPAB to make recommendations to achieve…
Panelists at this briefing examine what's happening behind the scenes to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. An overview of federal policymaking and the efforts by stakeholders and others to affect final policies pertaining to the health reform law is provided. The session will look into key tools and levers available to the federal government, including formal rulemaking and other policy processes, as well as efforts by stakeholders and others to affect final…
Three papers from the Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examine Medicaid enrollment and spending during the recent recession. The analyses show Medicaid enrollment rose above 50 million people nationally for the first time in 2010, reflecting the program’s counter-cyclical role of helping people who become uninsured when the economy falters, with many turning to Medicaid after losing jobs and employer-based health insurance. Without access to Medicaid coverage, millions more people who suffered economic…
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.
This primer provides an overview of behavioral health care, reviews the sources of financing for such care, assesses the interaction between different payers, and highlights recent policy debates in mental health. It also discusses the role of Medicaid, currently the largest source of financing for behavioral health services in the nation, covering a quarter of all expenditures. This comprehensive resource serves as a guide for those who want to understand the complex system of behavioral…
This report presents data on changes in Medicaid's enrollment and spending between federal fiscal year 2007 and federal fiscal year 2011, a period which includes the worst economic downturn in the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The paper also examines what factors drove Medicaid spending over the period, and concludes that overall spending growth from 2007 to 2011 was driven largely by the enrollment growth that resulted from many people losing…
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…
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