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  • Key Issues in Understanding the Economic and Health Security of Current and Future Generations of Seniors

    Issue Brief

    As part of broad deficit-reduction plans, policymakers are considering reforms to the nation's three major entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security - that could significantly affect the economic security of seniors in their retirement years. This brief examines the role of these programs in ensuring seniors' financial security as well as the challenges facing current and future generations when it comes to economic and health security. Drawing from current research and data, the…

  • The Medicaid Medically Needy Program: Spending and Enrollment Update

    Issue Brief

    This brief examines Medicaid's medically needy program, which gives states the option to extend Medicaid eligibility to those with high medical expenses whose income exceeds the maximum threshold, but who would otherwise qualify. It provides updated enrollment and spending figures on the medically needy using data through federal fiscal year 2009, and explains how individuals become eligible for the program and key considerations for policy discussions. Brief (.pdf)

  • Seniors and Income Inequality: How Things Get Worse With Age

    News Release

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why seniors need to be included in the national discussion on income inequality, especially as proposals to change Medicare and Social Security are considered. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available.

  • Medicare’s Income-Related Premiums: A Data Note

    Issue Brief

    This data note presents new information to help set a context for understanding the implications of recent changes to Medicare's income-related premiums incorporated in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), a new law to repeal and replace Medicare's Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for physician payments. It describes current requirements with respect to the income-related premiums under Medicare Part B and Part D, including the number and share of Medicare beneficiaries…

  • Income-Related Premiums in Medicare: Who Pays, and How Much Do They Pay?

    News Release

    Since 2007, seniors with incomes greater than $85,000 have had to pay higher premiums for Medicare than their counterparts with lower incomes.  Six percent of Medicare Part B enrollees are expected to pay higher monthly premiums in 2015, ranging from $147 to $336, depending on their income.  Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are considering whether to increase these income-related premiums to help offset the federal cost of repealing the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) payment formula, a…

  • Characteristics of the Medicare Population

    Feature

    Characteristics of the Medicare Population Download Source Urban Institute and Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, 2012; Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Current Beneficiary 2009 Cost and Use file.

  • Low Incomes, Little Savings: Many Medicare Beneficiaries Have Modest Financial Resources to Draw Upon in Retirement 

    News Release

    A new KFF analysis shows that most Medicare beneficiaries live on relatively low incomes and have modest financial resources for retirement – posing a risk to their economic well-being, particularly if they were to have a major, unanticipated expense, such as a need for long-term nursing home care. The financial picture is especially bleak among Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries, who tend to have lower incomes, savings, and home equity than White beneficiaries, the analysis…

  • Projecting Income and Assets: What Might the Future Hold for the Next Generation of Medicare Beneficiaries?

    Report

    As national attention turns to the federal deficit, some policymakers have proposed reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that could have significant implications for current and future generations of seniors and younger adults with disabilities. This data spotlight, co-authored by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute, describes the income and assets of current Medicare beneficiaries, considers variations by race, ethnicity and other demographic characteristics and examines the extent to which…

  • Medicaid Eligibility, Enrollment Simplification, and Coordination under the Affordable Care Act: A Summary of CMS’s March 23, 2012 Final Rule

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides a summary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) March 23, 2012 final rule to implement the ACA provisions relating to Medicaid eligibility, enrollment simplification and coordination. The rule, which is effective Jan. 1, 2014, lays out procedures for states to implement the Medicaid expansion and the streamlined and integrated eligibility and enrollment system created under the ACA. Achieving this goal will require substantial process and system changes among state…