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This Health Policy 101 chapter explores the performance of the U.S. health system on a number of cost, outcomes, and quality measures by comparing it with those in similarly large and wealthy OECD nations. It highlights that despite significant spending, Americans have shorter life expectancies and encounter more barriers to health care, influenced by both the health system's structure and broader socioeconomic factors.
The FY19 Conference Agreement, which includes funding for State & Foreign Operations (SFOPs), was released on February 13, 2019. The SFOPs section of the bill includes funding for U.S. global health programs at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Key highlights are as follows (see table for additional detail): Funding provided to the State Department and USAID through the Global Health Programs (GHP) account, which represents the bulk of global health…
CDC HIV Prevention Funding, 1981-2019 Download
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides enhanced federal matching funds to states that expand Medicaid to nonelderly adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL, $17,236/year for an individual in 2019). The ACA enhanced match (93% in 2019, and 90% in 2020 and thereafter) is substantially higher than states’ traditional Medicaid matching rate. A few states have sought Section 1115 demonstration waiver authority from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to…
CDC HIV Prevention Funding, 1981- 2020 BR Download
This analysis finds that donor government support for global family planning efforts totaled US$1.27 billion in 2017, up 6 percent from 2016 but still below its 2014 peak. Funding from the United States, the world’s largest donor, declined in 2017, largely due to a delay in the disbursement of funds as U.S. appropriations have been holding steady in recent years. Increases in other countries offset the U.S. lag
The President’s Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) budget request, which was released on February 9, 2016, included $10.3 billion in total funding for global health programs. This marks the first time in three years that the request for global health is higher than the previous year enacted level, and represents the largest request since FY12. If enacted by Congress, it would represent the highest level of global health funding to date (excluding emergency funding for Ebola…
Two initiatives that for years have helped shift Medicaid enrollees away from nursing homes in favor of long-term care at home and in the community face year-end deadlines that could undercut that trend, according to two new KFF issue briefs. While there does not appear to be substantive disagreement over the initiatives like there is with many other federal health programs, their expiration is coming at a time when Congress is engaged in a contentious…
Donor government disbursements to combat HIV in low- and middle-income countries totaled US$8 billion in 2018, little changed from the US$8.1 billion total in 2017 and from the levels of a decade ago, finds a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Half of the 14 donor governments analyzed in the study increased their spending on global HIV efforts from 2017 to 2018; five decreased…
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