National Health Insurance — A Brief History Of Reform Efforts In The U.S. February 28, 2009 Issue Brief This policy brief provides an overview of health reform efforts in the United States over much of the last century, from New Deal-era calls for government-subsidized health coverage to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s and the failed attempt at universal coverage in the early 1990s. Issue…
Resources on Community Health Centers March 1, 2009 Fact Sheet The Kaiser Family Foundation has issued three new resources that examine the role of community health centers as key components of the U.S. health care system, providing primary care to more than 16 million patients nationwide in 2007. The documents, produced for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured,…
Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Nancy-Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform April 15, 2009 Event Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, appeared as the third guest in a series of Health Care Reform newsmaker briefings sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business. The reporters-only briefings, designed to inform the public about prospects…
The Public and the Health Care Delivery System April 1, 2009 Poll Finding This survey by NPR and researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health highlights the public’s attitudes and experiences with the American health care delivery system. The new survey sheds light on Americans’ experiences with issues more typically discussed by health policy experts – including…
Medicaid as a Platform for Broader Health Reform: Supporting High-Need and Low-Income Populations April 30, 2009 Issue Brief Medicaid is the health insurance safety net for nearly 60 million of the nation’s poorest and sickest individuals. It provides access to a comprehensive scope of benefits with limited cost-sharing that is geared to meet the health needs and limited resources of the low-income, high-need populations it serves, populations for…
Expanding Health Coverage for Low-Income Adults: Filling the Gaps in Medicaid Eligibility April 30, 2009 Issue Brief Low-income adults (those with incomes below 200 percent of poverty, or $33,200 for a family of three in 2007) account for just over half of the non-elderly uninsured in the United States. This brief reviews the health coverage of non-elderly low-income adults and discusses the implications for national health reform…
Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Sen. Max Baucus May 21, 2009 Event This May 21, 2009 webcast features Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) at a Health Care Reform Newsmaker media briefing sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business. The reporters-only sessions, designed to inform the public about prospects and options for health…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – June 2009 May 31, 2009 Poll Finding The June Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds remarkable stability in public opinion on health reform as Congressional committees begin to hone in on the details of their health reform bills and debate intensifies. A solid majority of the American people continue to believe that health reform is more important than…
Explaining Health Reform: Medicare and the New Independent Payment Advisory Board April 29, 2010 Issue Brief This brief describes how the new board created under the 2010 health reform law is expected to limit the growth in Medicare spending over time. Starting in 2014, if projected per capita Medicare spending exceeds targets set in the law, the board must recommend ways to reduce Medicare spending, while…
Pulling it Together: The “Third School” for Controlling Health Care Costs? October 26, 2009 Perspective For as long as I have been in the field, there have been two dominant schools of thought about how to control health care costs. One school, The Regulators, believed that the best way to slow increasing costs was to control the total resources going into the health care system:…