Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues
Amid heightened public concern, the cost of prescription drugs is the focus of renewed attention by the Trump administration and lawmakers in Congress and state capitals. Proposed actions range from sweeping health care system changes to targeted initiatives that could affect Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. See KFF’s research, analysis and public opinion data, as well as Kaiser Health News’ journalism, related to prescription drugs and their costs.
This poll examines health care issues in the Democratic presidential primary , government negotiation of prescription drug prices, party trust on health care, Medicare-for-all, and the pending Texas v. US lawsuit affecting the Affordable Care Act and pre-existing condition protections.
This quick primer explains the similarities and differences among major proposals to lower prescription drug costs introduced by House Democrats, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Trump Administration as of December 2019.
Millions of current enrollees in stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug plans will face premium and other cost increases next year unless they switch to lower-cost plans during the open enrollment period that began Oct. 15 and ends on Dec. 7, a new KFF analysis finds. This includes two-thirds of…
This fact sheet includes the latest information and data about the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, including current plan information, the standard benefit parameters, low-income assistance, the latest available enrollment data, and Part D program spending and financing.
Drug prices are at the center of health policy debates at both the state and federal levels. . Policymakers are currently debating significant changes to payment for prescription drugs through Medicare and commercial insurers that may also have implications for Medicaid and the Medicaid Prescription Drug Rebate Program (MDRP). This brief explains the MDRP to help policymakers and others understand how Medicaid pays for drugs and any potential consequences of policy changes for the program.
The average person with traditional Medicare coverage paid $5,460 out of their own pocket for health care in 2016, according to a new KFF analysis and interactive tool. This $5,460 includes about $1,000 in out-of-pocket spending for long-term care facility services, averaged across all traditional Medicare beneficiaries. Such services are…
This analysis presents the most current data on out-of-pocket health care spending by Medicare beneficiaries, both overall and among different groups of beneficiaries. The analysis explores how much Medicare beneficiaries spend out of pocket in total on health care premiums and health-related services, on average; how much beneficiaries spend out of pocket on different types of health-related services; and what share of income beneficiaries spend on out-of-pocket health care costs.
Some recent proposals to lower prescription drug costs would require drug manufacturers to pay a rebate to the federal government if their prices for drugs covered under Medicare Part B and Part D increase by more than the rate of inflation. As context for understanding these proposals, this data note analyzes changes in list prices for drugs covered by Medicare Part D in recent years compared to changes in the rate of inflation.
A new KFF analysis finds that the list prices for most of the top Medicare Part D drugs by total spending increased as much as nine times the rate of inflation (1.7%) between 2016 and 2017, suggesting recent Congressional proposals targeting such increases could generate savings for Medicare and Part…
In response to higher drug spending growth and heightened attention to drug prices, some policymakers have proposed allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. This issue brief provides a short history of this proposal, describes several bills introduced in the 116th Congress to allow government negotiations as well as assessments of potential savings from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and considers the prospects for action in the future.