Prescription Drugs - Research and Data from KFF

A Record 3,834 Medicare Advantage Plans Will be Available in 2022, Up 8 Percent From 2021, While the Number of Medicare Part D Stand-Alone Plans is Decreasing Mainly Due to Firm Consolidations

Nov 2, 2021

News Release

A record 3,834 Medicare Advantage plans will be available across the country as alternatives to traditional Medicare for 2022, a new KFF analysis finds. That’s an increase of 8 percent from 2021, and the largest number of plans available in more than a decade. At the same time, the number of Medicare Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans that will be offered in 2022 is decreasing by 23 percent to 766 plans, primarily the result…

Explaining the Prescription Drug Provisions in the Build Back Better Act

Nov 23, 2021

Issue Brief

The Build Back Better Act includes several provisions that would lower prescription drug costs for people with Medicare and private insurance and reduce drug spending by the federal government and private payers. This brief summarizes these provisions and discusses the expected effects on people, program spending, and drug prices and innovation.

How Might Current Federal Drug Pricing Proposals Impact Medicaid?

May 24, 2021

Policy Watch

Although attention in current federal actions is largely focused on Medicare and private insurance drug prices, federal legislation also has been recently introduced or enacted that would affect Medicaid prescription drug policy.

KFF Health Tracking Poll – May 2021: Prescription Drug Prices Top Public’s Health Care Priorities

Jun 3, 2021

Feature

The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll explores the public's views on the U.S. role in distributing COVID vaccines to other countries, health care priorities for Congress, prescription drug regulations and price negotiations, and affordability changes in the COVID-19 relief bill.

Two-Thirds of the Public Say the U.S. Should Play a Major Role in Distributing COVID-19 Vaccines Globally, But Not Most Republicans

Jun 3, 2021

News Release

With increased attention to the global need for COVID-19 vaccines and the Biden administration’s announcement today about how it plans to distribute the first portion of the 80 million doses it will share by the end of this month, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that two-thirds of the public (66%) say that the U.S. should play at least a “major role” in distributing COVID-19 vaccines to other countries, including about a quarter (27%)…

How Would Drug Price Negotiation Affect Medicare Part D Premiums?

Aug 12, 2021

Issue Brief

Proposals to allow the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices, such as H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, aim to lower out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries and private plan enrollees and achieve savings for Medicare. This data note estimates average premium savings attributable to the negotiations provision of H.R. 3 on a per capita basis for Part D enrollees who pay premiums in dollar amounts and as a…

Drug Price Negotiation Doesn’t Mean the Government Will Restrict Access to Medicines

Oct 7, 2021

Policy Watch

This policy watch evaluates the pharmaceutical industry's claims that allowing the federal government to negotiate drug prices would restrict access to medications in Medicare. It explains what the current proposal to allow drug price negotiation would and wouldn't do.

New KFF Brief Takes a Closer Look at “Tele-PrEP” and the Future of PrEP Services in the United States

May 3, 2022

News Release

In 2020, only 25% of people who could benefit from pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication that reduces the risk of acquiring HIV, were prescribed it. Using telehealth to provide PrEP, “tele-PrEP,” is a new approach that shows potential for expanding access to PrEP use in the United States that predates the COVID-19 pandemic. A new KFF analysis takes a deep dive into the tele-PrEP landscape, from the types of providers offering the service to the…

Millions of Medicare Part D Enrollees Have Had Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs High Enough to Exceed the Catastrophic Threshold Over Time

Jul 23, 2021

News Release

Nearly 3 million Medicare Part D enrollees had out-of-pocket drug spending above the catastrophic threshold in a recent five-year period, finds a new KFF analysis that takes a comprehensive look at how many people on Medicare have drug expenses high enough to push them above that limit. While the Part D drug benefit has helped make drugs more affordable for people with Medicare, the lack of a hard cap on annual out-of-pocket spending under Part…

Most Americans Report a Personal Connection to Those Who Have Abused Prescription Painkillers; Whites More Likely To Be Affected Than Blacks or Hispanics

Nov 24, 2015

News Release

Poll Finds 9% Say a Family Member or Close Friend Died of an Overdose; 27% Say Either They or Someone Close to Them Has Been Addicted On the ACA This Month, 45 Percent View the Law Unfavorably and 38 Percent View It Favorably With prescription painkiller abuse garnering more attention from the media and policymakers, the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll finds most Americans have a personal connection to the issue. In total,…

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