Health Costs

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“...the search for a single top issue through polling questions — whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food — is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, ‘cost of living.’” — Drew Altman, KFF Founding President and CEO

Are Health Care Costs THE Top Issue for Voters?

In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, analyzes the polling on health costs as a voting issue and concludes that there is no one top voting issue. He writes: “I have come to the conclusion that the search for a single top issue through polling questions—whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food—is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, “cost of living.”

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How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

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On Tuesday, July 21, three experts joined Health Wonk Shop series moderator Larry Levitt in an hour-long discussion of health care affordability. During the discussion, panelists considered affordability from a variety of perspectives, including how to define affordability and the question of affordability for whom, how to measure it, and what can be done to address affordability and the underlying cost of health care.

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  • Managed Care For Low-Income Populations with Special Needs: The Tennessee Experience

    Report

    This paper provides a targeted review of Tennessee's experience providing health care to individuals with special needs under TennCare, its Medicaid managed care initiative. The first part reviews the experience of TennCare Partners, the behavioral health carve-out program created in 1996. The second part reviews how TennCare's structure affects the disabled and chronically ill.

  • Medicaid and Managed Care

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet provides an overview of the Medicaid program's increasing reliance on managed care to deliver services. Fact Sheet

  • Medicare: The Basics, A Public Dialogue on Health Care: The Future of Medicare

    Other Post

    Medicare: The Basics Part Two A Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Report Coverage Under Managed Care Plans and Other Options The vast majority of Medicare beneficiaries have their health care bills paid directly by Medicare's traditional fee-for-service program. The rest-nearly 6 million people-are covered under managed care plans, mostly HMOs, which contract with Medicare. Since the mid-1980s, a growing number of beneficiaries have elected to receive the benefits covered by Medicare Parts A and B…

  • Working Families at Risk: Coverage, Access, Cost and Worries

    Other Post

    Many Working Families Struggle To Get Needed Care And Pay Medical Bills Three-Quarters of the Currently or Recently Uninsured Are in Working Families Nearly Half of Uninsured Adults in Working Families Have Access or Bill Problems Embargoed for release until: 10:00 a.m., EST, Monday, December 8, 1997 For further Information contact: Chris Ferris (202)347-5270 or Mary Mahon (212)606-3853 Washington, D.C.-- Three in four American adults who do not have health insurance or who have experienced…

  • Toplines – Health Tracking Poll — March 2007

    Poll Finding

    This document contains the detailed toplines from the first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, which is tracking changes in the saliency of health as a political and policy priority, what the public’s priorities are for a health reform plan and whether any candidates are breaking through with the public with their health reform plans.  Toplines (.pdf)

  • Recent Attitudes Towards Patients Rights and Managed Care

    Report

    Newly released survey findings show continued public support for patient protections, including the right to sue health plans, but that support erodes if people believe that the cost of health insurance may increase or that companies might stop offering health coverage to their workers. The survey found that the percentage of people reporting problems with their health plans and the urgency the public attaches to Congressional action has not changed in recent years. Public Opinion…

  • Managed Care Consumer Protections Offered by Medium and Large Employers

    Fact Sheet

    A fact sheet summarizing data from a survey conducted between January and March of 1998 with 1,583 firms with 200 or more workers. The survey, which is conducted annually, focuses on the characteristics of the health benefit plans sponsored by employers.The supplemental questions discussed in this brief were developed jointly by staff from the Kaiser Family Foundation and KPMG and funded by the Foundation. Fact Sheet Fact Sheet

  • How Medicare HMO Withdrawals Affect Beneficiary Benefits, Costs, and Continuity of Care

    Report

    Results from the 1999 Survey of Experiences with Medicare HMOs This report examines the effects of Medicare HMO withdrawals on elderly and disabled beneficiaries who were involuntarily disenrolled from their HMO at the end of 1998. Based on a nationally-representative survey, the report describes new insurance arrangements made by beneficiaries after their HMO withdrew and considers the effects of this insurance transition on benefits, costs, and continuity of care. The study finds that most beneficiaries…