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This report examines the causes and contributors to medical debt, medical bankruptcy, and other difficulties with medical bills among people with insurance. Through in-depth interviews of nearly two-dozen people and quantitative analysis of national survey data, the authors of this report find that in-network and out-of-net-work cost sharing primarily contribute to medical debt among the insured.
KFF’s Survey of Medicaid Financial Eligibility for Older Adults & People with Disabilities, conducted in March 2026 by KFF and Watts Health Policy Consulting, provides a baseline of Medicaid eligibility ahead of potential changes to the Medicaid program stemming from the 2025 reconciliation law.
This brief presents key facts and analysis about affordability of health care costs among people with Medicare, including younger adults with long-term disabilities, drawing on data from various sources.
This blog post examines the retirement security of seniors with Medicare in the context of rising unemployment and market volatility due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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…
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…
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.
A small share of the 52.4 million elderly individuals and people with disabilities on Medicare have relatively high incomes, but most are of modest means -- with half living on incomes of less than $23,500 last year. Although the majority of beneficiaries have some savings, the value of their assets varies dramatically, and is much lower for black and Hispanic than white beneficiaries, for widows than for widowers, and for younger Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities…
Women Earn Less Than Men for Same Work… No Matter What Field They Go Into Download Source Institute for Women’s Policy Research, The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2012
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…
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