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This brief uses the latest available data from the National Survey of America's Families to assess the relationship of health coverage to work status, health, access and use of health services by women who left welfare in 1997 or after and had not returned by 1999. Issue Paper
This focus group study is of New Yorkers who enrolled in Disaster Relief Medicaid (DRM), a temporary public health insurance program created after the September 11th attacks. It is based on findings from six focus groups conducted with Hispanic, Chinese, and African American New Yorkers.
As policymakers consider a range of approaches to providing prescription drug coverage to the Medicare population in today s tight budgetary environment, one proposal that has been put forth by the Bush Administration is that of a Medicare-endorsed prescription drug discount card program. This report describes the range of existing discount card programs run by both private sponsors and state governments and provides background information on the implications of this approach to assisting Medicare beneficiaries…
This policy brief provides an overview of the low-income, uninsured population. Based on an analysis of the March 1998 Current Population Survey, the report discusses the demographic characteristics of this vulnerable population. It also presents information detailing health insurance coverage for low-income children and adults, as well as trends in insurance coverage over the past decade. It concludes with a discussion of recent coverage expansions and policy changes that have affected low-income Americans. The policy…
This report updates an earlier study of Oregon's experience with restructuring their Medicaid programs. It is one of a series of reports from The Kaiser/Commonwealth Low-Income Coverage and Access Project. This project examines how changes in the Medicaid Program have affected health insurance coverage and access to care for the low-income population in eight states: Maryland, California, Florida, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas. Report
Employment-Based Health Insurance Coverage and its Decline:The Growing Plight of Low-Wage Workers This background paper examines the increase in uninsured workers and the growing disparity in health insurance coverage between low- and high-wage workers. While a larger proportion of higher wage workers had health coverage in 1996 than a decade before, coverage deteriorated for low-wage and less-educated workers, especially young men. The paper explores many explanations for this widening disparity. The primary cause is that…
California's Undocumented Latino Immigrants: A Report on Access to Health Care Services This report provides the results of a survey of undocumented Latino immigrants in two California counties (Fresno and Los Angeles), including their access to health care services, insurance status, health status, and economic circumstances. Report
Barbara Lyons, deputy director of the Commission, testified to the Senate Special Committee on Aging about how the economic downturn may affect Medicaid's role for seniors.
This report examines a Medicare-based approach to reducing the ranks of the uninsured that would permit early retirees between the ages of 62 and 65 to purchase coverage under Medicare. The paper begins with an overview of the challenges of insuring the near-elderly and explores the potential effects of a Medicare buy-in on coverage of this population. The authors conclude that, unless premiums for such coverage were low or tied to enrollees' income, this approach…
Medicaid coverage substantially improves access to health care and lessens the financial burden of medical care for low-income seniors, but the program currently reaches only half of all poor Medicare beneficiaries. This report presents findings of focus groups with low-income seniors in an effort to understand barriers to enrollment for those who are eligible for Medicaid but who are not enrolled in the program, and to learn about the experiences of low-income seniors who are…
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