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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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In this Viewpoint for the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), KFF's Tricia Neuman and co-author Richard G. Frank of Harvard Medical School explain that the looming 2024 insolvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund cannot be ignored for long.
Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic, according to an updated analysis by Epic Health Research Network (EHRN) and KFF.
This brief takes a closer look at multiple measures beyond waiver waiting lists to evaluate state choices about optional Medicaid eligibility pathways, spending, and services for seniors and people with disabilities as of 2018. The analysis draws on several KFF resources, including 50-state surveys of Medicaid financial eligibility pathways for seniors and people with disabilities, HCBS waiver programs, and state plan benefits offered, as well as state Medicaid LTSS expenditures reported by Mathematica.
Donor government support for global family planning efforts totaled US$1.50 billion in 2018, up 19% from 2017 (US$1.26 billion) – and the highest level since tracking efforts began following the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012.
Medicare plays an integral role in end-of-life care, an issue that is emotionally-charged and easily politicized. About three-quarters of the 2.5 million Americans who die each year are ages 65 and older, and covered by Medicare at the time of their death, yet policy issues related to Medicare and end-of-life care are often poorly understood.
After Congress provided an unprecedented level of emergency funding for Ebola in FY15 in response to the West African outbreak, beyond regular appropriations for global health programs, FY16 returned to business as usual. There was no additional emergency funding and global health amounts remained essentially flat funding compared to prior years. The FY16 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which was signed into law by the President on December 18, 2015, included an estimated $10.2 billion in funding for global health programs continuing a trend of essentially flat funding since FY10.
Half of the 14 donor governments analyzed in the study decreased their spending on global HIV efforts from 2018 to 2019; six increased; and one held steady. Donor government funding supports HIV care and treatment, prevention and other services in low- and middle-income countries.
Millions of low-income Americans currently covered by Medicaid likely would become uninsured if the Supreme Court were to strike down the Affordable Care Act in California v. Texas, a legal challenge the high court is scheduled to hear in early November, KFF experts explain in a new Policy Watch post.
This brief analyzes the distribution of $50 billion in CARES Act funding for providers and shows that the distribution formula selected by the Department of Health and Human Services favored hospitals with a relatively high share of revenue from private insurance. Hospitals that see a smaller share of patients with private insurance and instead see more patients with Medicare or Medicaid received less funding per hospital bed.
In 2019, median savings among adults ages 65 and older were substantially lower for Black and Hispanic than White seniors. Approximately 1 in 4 Black and Hispanic seniors had no savings at all. Learn more in this Chart of the Week.
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