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The Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a town hall forum with Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D. the new U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, in which she shared her vision for the next phase of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in supporting efforts to achieve an AIDS-free generation.
Expanded health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is having a major impact on many of the nation’s hospitals through increases in the demand for care, increased patient revenues, and lower uncompensated care costs for the uninsured. This report examines the early experiences with the ACA by Ascension Health, the delivery subsidiary of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health system, Ascension. It finds that, overall, Ascension hospitals in Medicaid expansion states saw increased Medicaid…
The Medicaid program, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 30, 1965, will reach its 50th anniversary this year, a historic milestone. This report reflects on Medicaid’s accomplishments and challenges and considers the issues on the horizon that will influence the course of this major health coverage and financing program moving forward.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds 135 different U.S.-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) received U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding in 2013 to implement U.S. global health programs on the ground. The report aims to shed light on the extent of the role of NGOs in carrying out U.S. global health programs. Ninety-one percent of the funding went to 20 NGOs. NGOs received more than a third of the agency's global health spending and…
This Visualizing Health Policy infographic provides an overview of Medicare spending, including information on current federal spending relative to other government programs (e.g., Social Security) and percent-share of spending across Medicare services, as well as projected Medicare spending over the next decade and beyond. Recent federal spending on Medicare is about a third of Defense and Social Security spending combined. In the short term, Medicare spending per person is expected to be lower relative to…
The Democratic (minority) members of the House Appropriations Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee announced the introduction of the “Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015” (H.R. 5464). The bill specifies funding levels for global health programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the John E. Fogarty International Center (see table below). Additional funding for global health programs and research…
The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved, by a vote of 23-7, the FY 2014 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill (S.1372), which includes funding for U.S. global health programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department (see table below) comprising a significant portion of U.S. funding for global health (total funding for global health is not currently available as some funding provided through USAID, HHS, and DoD is not yet available).…
A new Kaiser Family Foundation report finds that donor governments provided US$1.3 billion in bilateral funding for family planning programs in low- and middle-income countries in 2013 – a 19 percent increase from 2012. Donor governments also gave an additional $454 million in core contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the primary multilateral organization addressing family planning. Funding has risen since the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012, although most of the increase…
This report finds that funding for global malaria control and elimination activities has risen from US$871 million in 2005 to US$2.6 billion in 2013. However, total funding is significantly below US$5.1 billion, the goal set by the Global Malaria Action Plan, which is a framework endorsed by world leaders in 2008 to reach global malaria reduction targets. Additionally, support for malaria research and development (R&D) activities in 2013 was estimated to be US$549 million, below…
This report provides an overview of Medicaid financing and Medicaid spending and enrollment growth with a focus on state fiscal years 2014 and 2015 (FY 2014 and FY 2015.) Findings are based on interviews and data provided by state Medicaid directors as part of the 14th annual survey of Medicaid directors in all 50 states and the District of Columbia conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) survey with Health Management…
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