Maternity Care and Consumer Driven Health Plans May 31, 2007 Event Maternity Care and Consumer-Driven Health Plans With maternity care representing one of the most common and costly medical interventions that women experience, Kaiser and the March of Dimes co-hosted a forum to release new studies that analyze the costs of maternity care and assess coverage under consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs).…
Health Affairs Article: From ‘Soak The Rich’ To ‘Soak The Poor: Recent Trends In Hospital Pricing April 29, 2007 Report Health Affairs Article: From 'Soak The Rich' To 'Soak The Poor': Recent Trends In Hospital PricingThe May-June 2007 issue of Health Affairs features a Foundation-supported study on recent trends in hospital pricing, including comparisons of rates charged to self-pay patients versus those with insurance coverage. The article also examies three…
Snapshots: How Changes in Medical Technology Affect Health Care Costs March 2, 2007 Issue Brief Health expenditures continue to grow very rapidly in the U.S. Since 1970, health care spending has grown at an average annual rate of 9.8%, or about 2.5 percentage points faster than the economy as measured by the nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Annual spending on health care increased from $75…
Medicare Consumer-Directed Health Plan: Medicare MSAs and HSA-like Plans in 2007 February 28, 2007 Issue Brief Medicare Consumer-Directed Health Plan: Medicare MSAs and HSA-like Plans in 2007This March 2007 issue brief, commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, examines the development of consumer-directed health plans in the Medicare program. Medicare Medical Savings Account plans have high deductibles accompanied by a personal savings account that can be used…
Health Affairs Article: Impact of State Tort Reforms on Physician Malpractice Payments February 27, 2007 Issue Brief A study in the March/April 2007 issue of Health Affairs analyzes the impact of state tort reforms on physician malpractice claims. The study finds that the tort law changes have had a measurable but limited impact on physician malpractice claims, depending on the type and strength of the tort reform. Commissioned by…
Snapshots: Effect of Tying Eligibility for Health Insurance Subsidies to the Federal Poverty Level February 12, 2007 Issue Brief Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the rapid growth of health insurance premiums and its impact on coverage affordability. Premium growth has far outpaced growth in workers earnings, which means that workers have to spend more of their income each year on health care to maintain current…
Snapshots: Insurance Premium Cost-Sharing and Coverage Take-up January 24, 2007 Issue Brief One of the many reasons an individual may be uninsured is that she or he decides an employer’s offer of health insurance is too expensive. Several studies have noted the likelihood that a worker will decline an employer’s offer of health insurance increases with the amount he or she is…
Health Care: Squeezing The Middle Class With More Costs and Less Coverage January 2, 2007 Event Health Care: Squeezing The Middle Class With More Costs and Less CoverageDiane Rowland, executive vice president of the Foundation and executive director of the Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, testified to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means about the economic challenges of rising health care costs…
Changes in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Sponsorship, Eligibility, and Participation: 2001 to 2005, Full Report December 31, 2006 Report This report provides a detailed account of how employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) coverage changed between 2001 and 2005, particularly among employees (i.e., workers who are not self-employed). The report begins with a short description of the major forces driving employer-sponsored insurance: changes in the workforce and the rising costs of health…
Toplines: The Public’s Health Care Agenda November 30, 2006 Poll Finding These toplines provide the complete survey questions and findings from The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the New Congress and Presidential Campaign, conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health between November 9 and 19, 2006. The survey looks at the public’s priorities and…