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This brief describes current coverage of GLP-1s in Medicare and Medicaid, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts to expand access and lower costs for GLP-1s through temporary demonstration programs including the BALANCE Model, and potential impacts on beneficiaries and program budgets.
This brief provides an overview of Medicare spending and financing, based on the most recent historical and projected data from the Medicare Trustees and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The brief highlights trends in Medicare spending and key drivers of spending growth, including higher enrollment, growth in health care costs, and increases in payments to Medicare Advantage plans.
Health News Index May/June, 2000 The May/June 2000 edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, Health News Index includes questions about major health stories covered in the news, including questions about the Congressional Democrats' proposal to have the Medicare program cover prescription drug costs for the elderly. The survey is based on a national random sample of 580 Americans and was conducted May 26-June 4, 2000. The survey measures public knowledge of…
This document provides a side-by-side comparison of four major federal proposals under consideration to provide outpatient prescription drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries. It begins with a summary table comparing key features of each proposal, followed by a detailed comparison of the following major proposals: Clinton/Moynihan (The Medicare Modernization Act), House-Passed Plan (The Medicare Rx 2000 Act), Breaux/Frist (The Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act), and Graham/Bryan/Robb (The Medicare Outpatient Drug Act of 2000). Side-by-side
Extending a drug benefit to Medicare beneficiaries has been a highly publicized issue in recent months. To address the question of how to finance and administer such a benefit while controlling its cost, some have proposed using pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)--companies that administer pharmaceutical benefits for health plans, HMOs, and employers while managing drug utilization and obtaining discounts from both retail pharmacies and manufacturers. Most recently, the Clinton Administration introduced a proposal for a Medicare…
Prescription Drug Trends - A Chartbook, an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Sonderegger Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about trends in prescription drug coverage, spending, prices, use, and industry structure. Although overall coverage for prescription drugs has increased over the last decade, about a quarter of the nonelderly and a third of Medicare beneficiaries have no drug coverage. Spending for prescriptions is one of the fastest growing components of health…
Testimony by Patricia Neuman, Sc.D., vice president and director of the Foundation's Medicare Policy Project, for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, hearing on Creating a Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit: begins with a brief review of existing sources of prescription drug coverage for the Medicare population and a discussion of how the lack of coverage affects people on Medicare. It then reviews broad approaches to improving prescription drug coverage, considers the…
About 5 million Americans under age 65 qualify for Medicare coverage because they are totally and permanently disabled. They are more likely than the elderly to live in poverty, to be in poor health, and to experience difficulties living independently and performing basic daily tasks. A new study from The Commonwealth Fund and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, reports that the disabled have few options other than Medicaid for obtaining prescription coverage. In ,…
This chartpack provides 2003 and 2006 estimates of total and out-of-pocket prescription drug spending by Medicare beneficiaries. The data and analysis for this chartpack, prepared by Actuarial Research Corporation, assume no change in current law. Chart Pack
A broad and informative bimonthly report, the new Kaiser Health Poll Report provides key tracking information, including historical trends and in-depth analysis of public opinion about hot health care topics. The current Featured Topic contains additional trends in public knowledge and attention to news about seniors and prescription drugs, as well as public opinion about who should be covered by a Medicare prescription drug benefit and what constitutes a good plan. Report Topline & Methodology
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