Low income

The Build Back Better Act would make a number of changes to the way people get health insurance and how health care is financed, including by temporarily closing the Medicaid coverage gap.

Recent policy attention has focused on closing the coverage gap for roughly 2.2 million individuals living in the 12 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These individuals do not qualify for Medicaid and have incomes below poverty, making them ineligible for premium subsidies in the…

A record 3,834 Medicare Advantage plans will be available across the country as alternatives to traditional Medicare for 2022, a new KFF analysis finds. That’s an increase of 8 percent from 2021, and the largest number of plans available in more than a decade. At the same time, the number…

This issue brief provides an overview of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit market for 2022, with a primary focus on stand-alone drug plans. It includes national and state-level data on plan availability, premiums, benefit design, cost sharing, information about premium-free plans for low-income beneficiaries, and information about the national Part D drug plans available in 2022.

In this column for the JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt explores why the Medicaid “coverage gap” still exists in 12 states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act, why it matters, and why eliminating it could prove challenging.

This analysis of per capita income and assets among older adults in 2019 shows that differences in median per capita income among White, Black, and Hispanic adults ages 65 and older are narrower when comparing people with similar levels of education, although among college graduates, the gap in income continues to be wide between Hispanic and White seniors. The gaps in savings and home equity remain wide, and are particularly striking among seniors with less than a high school education. The patterns are similar for men and women, as well as across different age groups of older adults.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis, about 4 in 10 adults nationwide have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder – a four-fold increase from pre-pandemic levels. Drawing on the latest national survey data, KFF polling and other research, an updated brief explores what’s known about the pandemic’s…

As the U.S. prepares for nationwide distribution of vaccines to combat COVID-19, some are asking whether people who get the first of two doses will return to complete the series. This analysis draws on Medicare Part D prescription drug claims data for the herpes zoster vaccine Shingrix, which also requires two doses, to shed light on this potential challenge of the leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

Medicare provides significant health and financial protections to more than 60 million Americans, but there are gaps in coverage and high cost-sharing requirements that can make health care difficult to afford. This report analyzes several policy options that could help make health care more affordable for people covered by Medicare, especially beneficiaries with relatively low incomes: adding an out-of-pocket limit to traditional Medicare, adding a hard out-of-pocket cap to Part D, expanding financial assistance through the Medicare Savings Programs, and expanding financial assistance through the Part D low-income subsidy program.