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This report presents findings from an analysis of the Medicare Part D marketplace in 2014 and changes in features of the drug benefit offered by Part D plans since 2006. It examines the latest information and trends related to Part D enrollment and plan availability, premiums, benefit design and cost sharing, pharmacy networks, the Low-Income Subsidy Program, and plan performance ratings.
In 2000, there were over 32 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. Immigrants often face barriers to health coverage and health services. The disparities confronting immigrants can be similar to those faced by low-income working families generally, but immigrants also face other barriers, including linguistic issues and eligibility changes that have limited their ability to qualify for Medicaid. These new or updated publications address issues related to how race, immigration status, and language affect insurance…
This issue brief illuminates the emotional and pocketbook struggles of families who have suffered financial reversals and lost health coverage in the economic recession forcing many to juggle bills, skip prescription medications and postpone visits to the doctor while they scramble to find a new job. Many who once had steady employment and incomes have had to turn to Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for the first time, even as those programs…
The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund sponsored this briefing which focused on three communities that have reformed and harmonized health care payments across payers to improve care: a New York health center that serves a low income population; a Colorado community that pools money from public and private sources to provide care for all patients; and the State of Maryland, which has been using an all payer hospital rate setting system for…
This Medicaid primer provides an overview of the nation's largest health coverage program, which covers more than 62 million low-income individuals, including children and families, people with disabilities and seniors who are also covered by Medicare. Medicaid also is the dominant source of the country’s long-term care financing. The program will expand significantly under the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
This paper provides a targeted review of Tennessee's experience providing health care to individuals with special needs under TennCare, its Medicaid managed care initiative. The first part reviews the experience of TennCare Partners, the behavioral health carve-out program created in 1996. The second part reviews how TennCare's structure affects the disabled and chronically ill.
The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, creates several new ways to get health coverage. This fact sheet explains how If you are uninsured and not offered health coverage through your job, you may be able to obtain coverage through Medicaid or through a new health insurance marketplace (or exchange) in your state. It is from our Obamacare & You series.
Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waivers offer states an avenue to test new approaches in Medicaid that differ from what is required by federal statute, so long as the approach is likely to “promote the objectives of the Medicaid program.” Waivers generally reflect priorities identified by states as well as changing priorities from one presidential administration to another. The Biden administration encouraged states to propose waivers that expand coverage, reduce health disparities, advance whole-person care, and…
Nationwide, an estimated 52 million nonelderly adults live with mental illness, and Medicaid covers nearly one in three (29%) of them, or about 15 million adults. More than 1 in 3 Medicaid enrollees has a mental illness. Mental health treatment rates for Medicaid adults are higher than or similar to those with insurance.
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