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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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Even Among Seniors, Relatively Few Aware That Wealthier Seniors Pay Higher Medicare Premiums Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress (conducted January 3-9, 2013)
Juliette Cubanski, Associate Director of the Foundation's Program on Medicare Policy, testified on Feb. 27, 2013 before the Senate Special Committee on Aging to provide an overview of the Medicare program and Medicare beneficiaries' costs and service utilization. Testimony (.pdf)
Given the recent debate over raising the age of Medicare eligibility, it is useful to understand public opinion on the issue. This Data Note analyzes KFF's historic trends and gives a current snapshot of public opinion on the proposal, with a special focus on how views differ by age, and the partisan divide that pervades public opinion on healthcare. The analysis then investigates how different arguments sway views on raising the age of Medicare eligibility…
The November poll finds that while health care ranked as a second-tier issue in this month's election, President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney tied among voters who felt strongly about the Affordable Care Act, and President Obama won an advantage among voters who said Medicare was important to their vote, and among women on women’s health issues. The November poll is the latest in a series designed and analyzed by the Foundation's public opinion…
These Foundation resources shed light on how the ongoing national debate about deficit reduction may affect Medicare, Medicaid and other health-care programs. These resources include analysis of specific savings proposals, polling on the public’s views of deficit-reduction options, summaries and comparisons of relevant elements of major deficit-reduction plans, and explanatory briefs and backgrounders describing key issues related to the debate. Drew Altman: The News Media and Entitlement Reform Medicare-Specific Analysis Policy Options to Sustain…
This data note draws primarily on two national surveys, the September Kaiser Health Tracking Poll and the Kaiser 2012 National Survey of Seniors, to examine how health issues are playing as a 2012 election issue for seniors, how this politically important group feels about a variety of policy proposals related to Medicare, including the premium support model, and seniors' views of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). Data Note (.pdf)
This data note reviews takes a historical look at the public's views of whom they trust more, Democrats or Republicans, when it comes to health care policy and Medicare policy and analyzes these views in the context of the current presidential election, in which both issues are playing a prominent role. Data Note (.pdf)
These key findings from the Foundation's 2012 National Survey of Seniors relate to seniors’ knowledge and experience with Medicare’s open enrollment period and choosing a plan. The survey finds one in four seniors say they are unaware of this annual opportunity to review and change their Medicare coverage, with even larger shares who say they are unaware of Medicare’s open enrollment period among blacks and Hispanics and those seniors in fair or poor health, with…
The October Health Tracking Poll finds, one week before the presidential election, the economy remains the primary concern on voters' minds, but health policy issues remain in the mix. The new survey finds that roughly a third of likely voters name the Affordable Care Act (37%), Medicare (36%), and Medicaid (30%) as "extremely important" to their vote, compared to half (52%) who say the same about the economy and jobs. But separate health care issues…
The September poll finds with the November election fast-approaching, Medicare trails only the economy and the federal budget deficit as key priorities for voters, and interest in the federal health program is even higher among seniors. More than a third (36%) of Americans say Medicare is “extremely” important to their vote in the election, compared to 49 percent who describe the economy in such terms and 41 percent who say so about the federal budget…
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