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This issue brief provides an overview of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit plan landscape, with a focus on stand-alone drug plans, the largest segment of the Part D market. It includes national and state-level data on plan availability, premiums, benefit design, cost sharing, information about premium-free plans for low-income beneficiaries, and information about the top ten Part D plans for 2019.
How Much " Skin in the Game " is Enough? The Financial Burden of Health Spending for People on Medicare Medicare extends health security and financial protection to seniors and younger people with disabilities. However, premiums, relatively high cost-sharing requirements, and gaps in the benefit package result in some beneficiaries spending a significant share of their income on health expenses. This data spotlight examines the burden out-of-pocket expenses placed on Medicare beneficiaries between 1997 and…
As national attention turns to the federal deficit, some policymakers have proposed reforms to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that could have significant implications for current and future generations of seniors and younger adults with disabilities. This data spotlight, co-authored by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute, describes the income and assets of current Medicare beneficiaries, considers variations by race, ethnicity and other demographic characteristics and examines the extent to which…
More than One in Ten Women Have Caregiving Responsibilities Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation, 2008 Kaiser Women’s Health Survey
One year into initial enrollment in the Medicare-Medicaid financial alignment demonstrations for dual eligible beneficiaries, some initial insights are beginning to emerge. This policy insight highlights key challenges and trends emerging in states’ demonstrations.
The July 28 special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) includes an article written by Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist, MD, and two infographics from the Foundation that examine the past, present, and future of Medicaid and Medicare. Medicare and Medicaid at 50 Years: Perspectives of Beneficiaries, Health Care Professionals and Institutions, and Policy Makers examines the roles the two programs…
In August 2004, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a proposed rule to implement the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Title I of the Medicare Modernization Act). Given the high level of interest in the proposed rules for implementing the Medicare drug benefit, the Kaiser Family Foundation commissioned Health Policy Alternatives, Inc. to prepare this summary of the proposed regulations. Issue Brief (.pdf)
This report, prepared by Marilyn Moon of The Urban Institute and Robert Friedland and Lee Shirey of Georgetown University's Center on an Aging Society, reviews the income and assets of the current Medicare population, provides an overview of asset tests used to determine eligibility for programs assisting low-income Medicare beneficiaries, and considers how alternative policy options would affect eligibility for these programs. The authors find that beneficiaries with low incomes tend to have minimal assets.…
This paper, by Vicki Gottlich, J.D., of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, looks at issues related to the new Medicare prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare who live in nursing homes or other long-term-care settings. It is one in a series commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation that analyzes issues surrounding the implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) and the proposed regulations. Issue Brief (.pdf)
Following up on an earlier column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank on seniors and poverty, Drew Altman looks at why older women will be more at risk of economic insecurity than men in the future.
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