311 - 320 of 338 Results

  • The Status of Funding for Zika: Comparing the President’s Request and Congressional Proposals

    News Release

    Zika, a mosquito-transmitted infection that in pregnant women can cause microcephaly as well as other serious birth defects, has recently become a global challenge, and with the first cases of local transmission now reported in the U.S., a domestic one as well. No new funding for Zika has yet been appropriated by Congress. While the President requested emergency funding from Congress to address Zika last February, it has yet to approve any funding and its own…

  • Medicare Part D Spending on the EpiPen Increased More than 1000 Percent from 2007 to 2014

    News Release

    As policymakers in Washington scrutinize the rising cost of the EpiPen auto-injector, a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that Medicare Part D spending for the potentially life-saving device increased by more than 1000 percent between 2007, the year after the Part D drug benefit took effect, and 2014, the most recent year for which data are available. The higher spending partly results from more Part D enrollees using EpiPens during that period,…

  • Modifying Traditional Medicare’s Benefit Design Could Reduce Federal Spending But With Cost Tradeoffs Between Beneficiaries and The Federal Government

    News Release

    Revamping traditional Medicare’s benefit design and restricting “first-dollar” supplemental coverage could reduce federal spending, simplify cost sharing, protect against high medical costs, decrease out-of-pocket spending for many beneficiaries, and provide more help to those with low incomes -- but would be unlikely to achieve all of these goals simultaneously.

  • Analysis Finds End-of-Life Medicare Spending Declines With Age Among Seniors

    News Release

    Among beneficiaries who died in 2014, Medicare spent significantly more per person on medical services for seniors in their late sixties and early seventies than on older beneficiaries, according to a new data note from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis comes at a time when physicians can now be reimbursed by Medicare for end-of-life care discussions with their patients. The analysis of Medicare claims data through 2014 finds that among those who died in…

  • How Much Has Medicare Spent on the EpiPen Since 2007?

    Issue Brief

    This data note examines the effects of rising EpiPen prices on Medicare and beneficiaries. We analyze EpiPen spending, in the aggregate and per user, in Medicare Part D between 2007 (the year after the Part D drug benefit took effect, and the year Mylan acquired the product) and 2014 (the most recent year of data available).

  • Health Spending Issues to Watch This Year

    Issue Brief

    KFF and the Peterson Center on Healthcare examine market trends contributing to rising health costs and identify several potential federal and state policy issues to watch throughout 2025, including high-cost drugs, federal funding cuts, and workforce shortages.