Health Insurance/Costs: Individual Insurance

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Consumer Guide to Handling Disputes with Your Employer or Private Health Plan
Helps consumers navigate their employer or private health plan's internal grievance procedure, as well as any external review program of specific states.

How Private Health Coverage Works:
A Primer — 2008 Update
This primer explains the role and operations of private health coverage in the United States. It discusses the fundamental aims of private coverage and sorts out the complicated web of state and federal regulations that govern it.

Recent Documents: (46 results)

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Pulling it Together: Last Week's Health Reform "Shocker" -- June 2009
In the latest column from "Pulling It Together, From Drew Altman," the Kaiser Family Foundation’s President and CEO

Explaining Health Care Reform: What is Health Insurance? -- May 2009
This brief explains the ways in which coverage might be defined under a health reform plan, and some of the policy issues raised by those determinations.

Explaining Health Care Reform: What Is An Employer “Pay-or-Play” Requirement? -- May 2009
The brief examines the concept of employer pay-or-play provisions in health reform proposals and some of the policy implications surrounding the level of coverage required, the penalty to employers who do not offer coverage, and whether small firms are exempt from the requirements.

Explaining Health Care Reform: What Are Health Insurance Exchanges? -- May 2009
This brief explains the purpose and function of health insurance exchanges, which are a key element on many recent health care reform plans.

Health Insurance Coverage for Older Adults: Implications of a Medicare Buy-In -- May 2009
As Congress prepares to debate major health reform legislation, some key legislators have proposed a Medicare buy-in for people ages 55 to 64. This policy brief profiles the 4 million uninsured individuals in that age range and how a Medicare buy-in could be structured.

Congressional Testimony on Expanding Health Care Coverage -- May 2009
This contains the prepared written testimony of Foundation Executive Vice President Diane Rowland and Vice President Gary Claxton, who each testified May 5, 2009, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance's Roundtable On Health Care Coverage.

Tutorial: Tax Subsidies for Health Care -- April 2009
This narrated presentation explains how tax subsidies for health insurance work and discusses the arguments for and against them.

Health Care Costs: A Primer -- March 2009
This primer on health care costs examines the rapid growth in the nation’s health care costs since 1970, when the average growth in health spending exceeded the growth of the economy as a whole by an average of 2.5 percentage points. It also examines the impact of health care costs on families, with insurance premiums rising 87% between 2000 and 2006, more than four times the growth in wages.

Video: "The Cost of Cancer" -- February 2009

This Kaiser Family Foundation documentary explores the financial consequences faced by three people, all privately insured, after being diagnosed with cancer. It was released in conjunction with a joint Kaiser/American Cancer Society report, "Spending To Survive: Cancer Patients Confront Holes in the Health Insurance System."

Spending To Survive: Cancer Patients Confront Holes in the Health Insurance System -- February 2009

This report examines the severe challenges cancer patients can face in paying for their health care even when they have private health insurance. It is authored jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

In the latest column from "Pulling It Together, From Drew Altman," the Kaiser Family Foundation’s President and CEO

This brief explains the ways in which coverage might be defined under a health reform plan, and some of the policy issues raised by those determinations.

The brief examines the concept of employer pay-or-play provisions in health reform proposals and some of the policy implications surrounding the level of coverage required, the penalty to employers who do not offer coverage, and whether small firms are exempt from the requirements.

This brief explains the purpose and function of health insurance exchanges, which are a key element on many recent health care reform plans.

As Congress prepares to debate major health reform legislation, some key legislators have proposed a Medicare buy-in for people ages 55 to 64. This policy brief profiles the 4 million uninsured individuals in that age range and how a Medicare buy-in could be structured.

This contains the prepared written testimony of Foundation Executive Vice President Diane Rowland and Vice President Gary Claxton, who each testified May 5, 2009, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance's Roundtable On Health Care Coverage.

This narrated presentation explains how tax subsidies for health insurance work and discusses the arguments for and against them.

This primer on health care costs examines the rapid growth in the nation’s health care costs since 1970, when the average growth in health spending exceeded the growth of the economy as a whole by an average of 2.5 percentage points. It also examines the impact of health care costs on families, with insurance premiums rising 87% between 2000 and 2006, more than four times the growth in wages.

This Kaiser Family Foundation documentary explores the financial consequences faced by three people, all privately insured, after being diagnosed with cancer. It was released in conjunction with a joint Kaiser/American Cancer Society report, "Spending To Survive: Cancer Patients Confront Holes in the Health Insurance System."

This report examines the severe challenges cancer patients can face in paying for their health care even when they have private health insurance. It is authored jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society.

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Health Insurance/Costs: Individual Insurance

People without access to employer-sponsored insurance may obtain health insurance on their own, usually through the individual health insurance market, although in some instances health insurance may be available to individuals through professional associations or similar arrangements. About 12 million nonelderly people buy health insurance directly at any given time.