Explaining Health Care Reform: What is Comparative Effectiveness Research? September 29, 2009 Issue Brief The brief examines current funding for comparative effectiveness research, the provisions included in the current health reform legislation, and issues related to which treatments that might be studied, whether and how to weigh costs of care, and how such findings will be used and shared with health-care practitioners and the…
Public Opinion on Health Reform: What Do the Polls Mean? October 1, 2009 Event The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation co-sponsored this briefing to have a panel of experts answer questions about how public support for health reform waxes and wanes depending, not only on what’s being proposed in the reform proposals, but also on who asks the question and…
Affordability and Health Reform: If We Mandate, Will They (and Can They) Pay? November 1, 2009 Event The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund co-sponsored this briefing to explore the health reform proposals being considered which may impose responsibilities on both individuals and employers to have and help pay for coverage and whether they will be able to pay the amounts above the subsidies. Questions…
Pulling it Together: An Actuarial Rorschach Test February 11, 2010 Perspective Drew Altman, Larry Levitt, Gary Claxton My colleagues have worked on this column with me and I invited them to join me as authors. As with pretty much every other discussion of health care going back to the days of Roosevelt, the great reform debate of 2009 (and now 2010)…
Medicaid Coverage and Spending in Health Reform: National and State-By-State Results for Adults at or Below 133% FPL May 1, 2010 Report This analysis, performed by the Urban Institute for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, shows that the expansion of Medicaid under the health reform law will significantly increase the number of people covered by the program and reduce the uninsured in states across the country, with the federal…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — October 2010 October 18, 2010 Poll Finding With the November midterm elections just weeks away, Americans remain chronically divided over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but most say that their feelings – pro and con – about the health reform law are not a dominant factor in how they will vote for Congress or whether…
Physician Workforce: The Next Generation November 10, 2010 Event The new health reform law poses questions about how the increase in the insured population will affect the demand on the health care workforce. Will it increase the shortage among primary care physicians? What about specialists? How much of the workforce shortage can be alleviated by payment incentives in the…
Pulling It Together: Repeal January 6, 2011 Perspective The House will soon vote to repeal the health reform law, the Senate won’t, and the President would veto it if they did. So what does a House vote for repeal mean? It is, of course, a campaign promise kept to the political right. It is also a signal from…
Mobile Technology: Smart Tools to Increase Participation in Health Coverage March 1, 2011 Issue Brief As mobile technology advances and cell phone use continues to increase across demographic groups, there is significant potential to tap these technologies to facilitate enrollment in and retention of health coverage, in both the immediate term and as health reform is implemented. A brief produced in conjunction with The Children’s…
Essential Health Benefits: Balancing Affordability and Adequacy February 3, 2012 Event Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), insurance plans offered through state insurance exchanges as well as non-grandfathered plans offered in the individual and small group markets – will be required to cover a set of health benefits and services called the “essential health benefits” package. Guidance issued…