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Chartpack: Seniors' Early Experiences With Their New Medicare Drug Plans - June 2006 These charts highlight key data from the June 2006 tracking poll on seniors' early enrollment experiences with the Medicare drug benefit. Chartpack (.pdf)
A Political History of Medicare and Prescription Drug Coverage Thomas R. Oliver, Philip R. Lee, and Helene L. Lipton This article examines the history of efforts to add prescription drug coverage to the Medicare program. It identifies several important patterns in policymaking over four decades. First, prescription drug coverage has usually been tied to the fate of broader proposals for Medicare reform. Second, action has been hampered by divided government, federal budget deficits, and ideological…
As the first phase of the new Medicare prescription drug law takes effect, the Kaiser Family Foundation commissioned focus groups conducted by Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies and Geoff Garin of Peter D. Hart Research Associates in consultation with Foundation staff. The focus groups were designed to explore what people on Medicare know and think about the discount drug card that went in effect June 1st, and the new benefit that takes effect in…
This report examines the implications for Medicare beneficiaries of leading approaches to provide coverage for prescription drugs, looking at coverage, benefit levels and out-of-pocket spending. Report
This document provides key findings from a USA Today/Kaiser/Harvard survey examining Americans’ views on, and experiences with, prescription drugs and the pharmaceutical industry, including drug costs, advertisements, safety issues, government regulation and medical research. Summary and Charts (.pdf)
This Medicare Part D Data Spotlight examines the variation in 2008 Part D plan coverage, cost sharing and utilization management tools for the 10 prescriptions most commonly used by Medicare beneficiaries, including treatments for cholesterol, cardiovascular health, osteoporosis, dementia, gastrointestinal reflux and ulcers. It looks at data from the 47 stand-alone prescription drug plans available nationwide in 2008. This data spotlight is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the 2008 Medicare Part D…
This Medicare Part D Data Spotlight focuses on the availability of drug plans for beneficiaries receiving the Part D low-income subsidy in 2008 and changes since 2006. It looks at data from the 47 stand-alone prescription drug plans available nationwide in 2008. This is one in a series analyzing key aspects of the 2008 Medicare Part D prescription drug plan choices. The analysis was conducted jointed by Jack Hoadley of Georgetown University, Elizabeth Hargrave of NORC…
This updated document, prepared by Health Policy Alternatives, Inc., provides a side-by-side comparison of the House and Senate Medicare proposals, as passed on June 27, 2003. The side-by-side describes key provisions of H.R. 1, The Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003, and S. 1, The Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003. This updated document, which includes CBO's recent estimates of the costs of each bill and additional detail on payments to…
This memorandum provides background on the issue of contraceptive coverage and presents new findings from the soon to be released Kaiser/HRET 2002 Annual Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Benefits. Employer Based Coverage of Contraception
A new report presenting year 2000 trends on prescription drug spending, summarizing states options in designing their benefit, and reviewing several ways states are using their flexibility to curb the rate of growth of their Medicaid drug budgets. Background Paper
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