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The Graham-Cassidy proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is reviving the federal health reform debate and could come up for a vote in the Senate before the budget reconciliation authority expires on September 30. This fact sheet describes five ways in which the proposal revamps and cuts Medicaid, redistributes federal funds across states and eliminates coverage for millions of poor Americans.
As the U.S. enters a Presidential election year and the larger global health and development landscape changes, U.S. global health programs face a key moment of transition. The prior decade saw unprecedented attention to and funding for global health by the U.S. government. Although funding has flattened in recent years, global health has generally enjoyed significant bipartisan support in Congress and the Administration, at a level not seen in most other non-entitlement or discretionary spending…
In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses a recent success in global HIV treatment and how successes may get less attention than they deserve because of prevailing attitudes about the corruption in foreign aid. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available.
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…
While U.S. global health programs have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past, a new survey of the public and findings from interviews with global health and foreign policy experts suggest a growing partisan divide, as the country gears up for the 2016 election. Half (53%) of Americans say the U.S. is already doing enough to improve health in developing countries, and 46 percent think the U.S. is doing more than its fair share compared to…
In this Policy Insight, Jen Kates and Josh Michaud look at the prospects for the future of U.S. global health policy, examining whether long-term bipartisan support may be tested during a time of political transition, and identifying key areas of consensus among policymakers and the public.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the FY 2024 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) appropriations bill, accompanying report, and amendments on July 20, 2023. The SFOPs bill includes funding for U.S. global health programs at the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Funding for these programs, through the Global Health Programs (GHP) account, which represents the bulk of global health assistance, totaled $10.3 billion, a decrease of $239 million…
State legislatures are currently gathering to develop new budgets for state fiscal year (FY) 2025. Heading into this budget cycle, state fiscal conditions are shifting, with state revenues starting to decline following steep revenue growth during the pandemic. This issue brief examines trends in state fiscal conditions and discusses how state budgets and macroeconomic conditions may affect individuals and state Medicaid programs.
This report provides an analysis of donor government funding to address family planning in low- and middle-income countries in 2022, which totaled US$1.35 billion and was a decline of 9% (US$129 million) compared to the 2021 amount (US$1.48 billion). While the decline was due to decreases in funding by most donor governments, a significant share can be attributed to exchange rate fluctuations resulting from the rise in value of the U.S. dollar against most currencies…
A KFF analysis shows that gross total Medicare spending on Ozempic and other similar drugs has increased dramatically in recent years – even though Medicare is explicitly prohibited by law from covering the drugs for obesity. That’s because Medicare now covers the drugs, known as GLP-1s, for other medically accepted indications, including to treat diabetes. This week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) informed Medicare drug plans that they can cover Wegovy, another…
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