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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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Incorporating data from the 2009 Medicare Trustees' Report, this chartpack examine the fiscal challenges facing the Medicare program as well as the public's views on confronting them. Chartpack (.pdf)
Health News Index March/April, 2000 The March/April 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 Supreme Court's ruling on the the Food and Drug Administration's authority to regulate the marketing of tobacco products. The survey is based on a national random sample of 1,012 Americans conducted March 31-April 3, 2000 which measures public knowledge of…
This analysis examines the extent of state-level variation in the share of COVID-19 deaths accounted for by older adults, using data from the CDC as of July 22, 2020, for the week ending July 11, 2020.
A small share of the 52.4 million elderly individuals and people with disabilities on Medicare have relatively high incomes, but most are of modest means -- with half living on incomes of less than $23,500 last year. Although the majority of beneficiaries have some savings, the value of their assets varies dramatically, and is much lower for black and Hispanic than white beneficiaries, for widows than for widowers, and for younger Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities…
This comprehensive survey of people on Medicare, conducted in June and July 2004, assesses their attitudes toward the new Medicare drug law. This chartpack, issued in September 2004, presents additional analysis on the survey data, focusing on the views of people under age 65 with physical and/or mental disabilities. Supplemental Chartpack (.pdf)
This study examines Medicaid pharmacy benefit use and spending among beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid in 10 states by analyzing 1995 enrollment and claims data from a new 12-state database. The study finds that dual-eligibles are relatively high users of the Medicaid pharmacy benefit, with substantial variation in both drug use and spending among this population across the 10 study states. This variation appears to persist independent of beneficiaries' health status and is…
The private plans that offer the Medicare Part D benefit - stand-alone drug plans and Medicare Advantage drug plans - are increasingly are competing on uneven terms, in part because the payment system for Medicare Advantage plans enables them to lower Part D premiums or reduce Part D cost sharing, making drug coverage from Medicare Advantage plans appear considerably cheaper, or even premium-free, to the beneficiary. This brief discusses the growing instability of the Part…
This brief takes a closer look at multiple measures beyond waiver waiting lists to evaluate state choices about optional Medicaid eligibility pathways, spending, and services for seniors and people with disabilities as of 2018. The analysis draws on several KFF resources, including 50-state surveys of Medicaid financial eligibility pathways for seniors and people with disabilities, HCBS waiver programs, and state plan benefits offered, as well as state Medicaid LTSS expenditures reported by Mathematica.
This issue brief presents findings on key state policy choices about Medicaid HCBS in FY 2020. This is the latest data available, and the first since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected in KFF’s 19th survey of state officials administering Medicaid HCBS programs in all 50 states and DC. A related brief presents the latest state-level data about the number of people receiving HCBS and HCBS spending
A new study conducted by researchers at Tufts-New England Medical Center, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund, reports results from a 2001 survey of 10,927 noninstitutionalized seniors in eight geographically diverse states: California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. State-level data on drug coverage, medication use, out-of-pocket costs, and cost-related medication skipping among community-dwelling seniors are highlighted to examine how coverage and experiences differ by state and how…
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