Medicare-Covered Older Adults Are Satisfied with Their Coverage, Have Similar Access to Care as Privately-Insured Adults Ages 50 to 64, And Fewer Report Cost-Related Problems May 17, 2021 Issue Brief This brief analyzes current experiences of Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older with respect to satisfaction and access measures and examines whether privately-insured adults ages 50 to 64 report access or cost problems at higher or lower rates than Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older.
COVID-19 Deaths and Cases in Long-Term Care Facilities Have Fallen to All-Time Lows in the Four Months Since Vaccinations Began April 22, 2021 News Release COVID-19 deaths and cases among residents and staff of long-term care facilities have fallen dramatically since vaccinations began in December, with deaths declining by nearly 89 percent and cases declining by nearly 92 percent as of April 2021, according to a new KFF analysis. COVID-19 deaths in long-term care settings…
COVID-19 Long-Term Care Deaths and Cases Are at An All-Time Low, Though A Rise In LTC Cases In A Few States May Be Cause for Concern April 22, 2021 Issue Brief This data note looks at state-reported LTCF data from 41 states plus Washington DC to assess what has happened to new deaths and cases in LTCFs in the four months since vaccinations began on December 21st, 2020. We also examine how recent changes in deaths and cases in LTCFs have shifted the nature of the pandemic outside of LTCFs. Data in this analysis is as of the week of April 11th, 2021.
How Could $400 Billion New Federal Dollars Change Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services? July 16, 2021 Issue Brief This issue brief places the American Jobs Plan in the context of current Medicaid HCBS spending and considers how policymakers might allocate the new funding, as the proposal to date includes little detail.
A Look at Recent Proposals to Control Drug Spending by Medicare and its Beneficiaries November 26, 2019 Issue Brief In response to higher drug spending growth and heightened attention to drug prices, policymakers have proposed a variety of policy initiatives to lower the cost of prescription drugs in Medicare. This brief examines in detail the range of proposals offered by the Trump Administration and members of Congress for lowering the cost of prescription drugs, their known effects on the federal budget, and their potential implications for beneficiaries and other stakeholders.
Above Federal Subsidy Threshold, Older Adults Spend Much More Income on ACA Coverage March 8, 2019 Slide For incomes too high to qualify for federal subsidies, 60-year-old adults spend significantly more of their income on the lowest premiums for ACA-compliant coverage.
Financial Performance of Medicare Advantage, Individual, and Group Health Insurance Markets August 5, 2019 Issue Brief Three key private health insurance markets — Medicare Advantage, the individual market and the fully-insured group market — appear to be financially healthy and attractive to insurers. The private Medicare Advantage market generates significantly larger gross margins per person than the individual market or fully-insured market. The future of these markets has become a focus for policymakers amid the debate over Medicare for All.
What Steps Are Washington Policymakers Pursuing to Control Medicare Prescription Drug Spending? August 1, 2019 News Release As policymakers in Washington discuss ways to curb the rising cost of prescription drugs, KFF has released a summary and analysis of proposals and recently finalized initiatives that affect Medicare prescription drug spending. Medicare, the federal health program that covers more than 60 million seniors and younger people with disabilities,…
How Many Medicare Part D Enrollees Had High Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs in 2017? June 21, 2019 Issue Brief The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit has helped improve the affordability of medications for people with Medicare. Yet Part D enrollees can face relatively high out-of-pocket costs because the Part D benefit does not have a hard cap on out-of-pocket spending. This analysis presents the latest data on out-of-pocket drug spending among Medicare Part D enrollees without low-income subsidies who have costs above the catastrophic coverage threshold.
Do People Who Sign Up for Medicare Advantage Plans Have Lower Medicare Spending? May 7, 2019 Issue Brief The analysis finds that people who switched from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage in 2016 had health spending in 2015 that was $1,253 less, on average, than the average spending for beneficiaries who remained in traditional Medicare (after adjusting for health risk). The findings suggest that the current payment method may systematically overestimate expected costs of Medicare Advantage enrollees. Adjusting payments to reflect Medicare Advantage enrollees’ prior use of health services could potentially lower total Medicare spending by billions of dollars over a decade.