The Health Reform Law’s Medicaid Expansion: A Guide to the Supreme Court Arguments March 29, 2012 Issue Brief One significant element of the pending U.S. Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act is the constitutionality of the law’s Medicaid expansion. This provision of the law requires states that choose to participate in the Medicaid program to cover nearly all adults under age 65 with household incomes at…
Medicaid and Community Health Centers: The Relationship Between Coverage for Adults and Primary Care Capacity in Medically Underserved Communities March 1, 2012 Issue Brief Community health centers play an important role in providing care to uninsured and low-income individuals living in medically underserved communities. They rely on many different revenue sources and, over time, Medicaid has become a central source of funding for most health centers. To better understand how Medicaid influences health center…
Pulling It Together: The Falloff in Utilization: “There’s Something Happening, Here, What It Is Ain’t Exactly Clear” April 10, 2012 Perspective For as long as I have been in the field, we have seen cycles in health care costs. Per capita health spending would rise, then moderate, then rise gain. My colleague Larry Levitt and I documented this in The Sad History of Health Care Costs and my friend Dr. Jim Mongan…
The Part D Experience: What are the Lessons for Broader Medicare Reform? May 30, 2012 Event Launched in 2006, Medicare added a prescription drug benefit that relies entirely on private plans, while, for other benefits, beneficiaries have a choice between private health plans and traditional fee-for-service Medicare. As policymakers consider changes to Medicare that would give an even greater role to private health plans in caring…
State Coverage of Preventive Services for Women under Medicaid: Findings from a State-Level Survey November 2, 2012 Issue Brief This brief reviews Medicaid’s role in covering preventive care for women, presents findings of importance to women from the survey, and discusses the implications for women on Medicaid following the implementation of health reform.
Health Insurance Exchanges: Can States and the Federal Government Meet the Deadline? July 27, 2012 Event The Alliance for Health Reform and the Commonwealth Fund sponsor a July 27 briefing to discuss how states are facing implementation and evaluation deadlines in regards to health insurance exchanges. Speakers will explore such questions as: What needs to happen between now and January 2014 for states to successfully implement…
Health Insurance Market Reforms: Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions October 8, 2012 Fact Sheet Insurers pursue multiple strategies to reduce the cost of covering enrollees with pre-existing conditions, or medical conditions and health problems that existed before the individual enrolled in a health plan. One strategy, the pre-existing condition exclusion, allows insurers to refuse to cover any costs associated with care for a pre-existing…
Seniors and the 2012 Presidential Election October 30, 2012 Poll Finding 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…
The Uninsured And The Difference Health Insurance Makes September 1, 2012 Fact Sheet This fact sheet describes the characteristics of the uninsured and explains the recent increase in this population. It also examines the difference that health insurance can make and how health reform is expected to cover millions more people.
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 — March 2008 March 5, 2008 Poll Finding Growing economic worries have led to a sharp rise in the economy as a campaign issue, eclipsing health on voters’ priority list, as well as Iraq. With economic concerns rising, where will health fit in the ongoing presidential campaign? This March 2008 poll finds that health care plays a role…