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As the Trump administration promotes its new TrumpRx website and other efforts to lower prescription drug prices, a growing majority of the public worries about being able to afford prescription drugs, and large majorities across parties want the government to do more to regulate prices, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds.
A new Peterson-KFF policy explainer lays out the health care trends shaping the 2026 policy debates, including rising premiums, spending on prescription drugs, health care price transparency and consolidation, artificial intelligence in health care, Medicaid funding cuts and other key program changes.
This Medicare Part D data spotlight examines the benefit design of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) in 2008, focusing on national plans. It shows that in 2008, as in previous years, only about 10 percent of national prescription drug plans offered the defined standard benefit. The spotlight also looks at cost sharing structures, the use of flat dollar copayments, the upward trend in cost sharing for non-preferred drugs, and recent changes in cost…
Key Implementation Dates for the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit This timeline presents important dates and deadlines of key implementation activities related to the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). It runs from the beginning of 2005 through the end of 2006, the first year of the new Medicare drug benefit. Some of these dates are defined in the MMA statute, while others are from the final rule issued by the Centers…
This fact sheet summarizes Medicaid’s role as the major source of outpatient pharmacy services for low-income Americans. Medicaid spent $25.4 billion on prescription drugs in fiscal year 2009, and outpatient prescription drug coverage is an optional benefit that all state Medicaid programs currently provide. Fact Sheet (.pdf)
The Medicare Modernization Act established a defined standard drug benefit for Part D stand-alone Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) and Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug (MA-PD) plans, while giving plans flexibility to offer alternative benefit designs. Only about one in 10 PDPs offer the standard benefit in 2010. Plan sponsors can offer alternative benefit designs that are, at a minimum, actuarially equivalent to the defined standard and can also offer enhanced benefits. This Medicare Part D data…
This policy brief provides perspective on the potential for using comparative effectiveness research in Medicaid pharmacy programs by looking at seven states to determine how they currently evaluate relative clinical and cost information about prescription drugs when making coverage decisions for their Medicaid pharmacy benefits. The brief was prepared by researchers at the Foundation's Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and Avalere Health. Policy Brief (.pdf)
Summary of Key Changes to Medicare in 2010 Health Reform Law . This brief provides a detailed look at the improvements in Medicare benefits, changes to payments for providers and Medicare Advantage plans, various demonstration projects and other Medicare provisions in the law. It includes a timeline of key dates for implementing the Medicare-related provisions in the law.
The brief examines current funding for comparative effectiveness research, the provisions included in the current health reform legislation, and issues related to which treatments that might be studied, whether and how to weigh costs of care, and how such findings will be used and shared with health-care practitioners and the public. It is part of the Foundation's series of Explaining Health Reform briefs on key concepts in health reform. Brief (.pdf)
Medicare and the President's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Proposal This fact sheet summarizes key Medicare-related provisions in the Bush Administration's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal, as well as additional legislation that responds to the Medicare Trustees' "Medicare Funding Warning." Fact Sheet (.pdf)
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