Policy & Regulation

Steven Lutzky, John Corea, and Lisa Alecxih

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services A Survey of Employers Offering Group Long-Term Care Insurance to Their Employees Final Report

The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 included a number of changes to Medicare managed care. The newly created Medicare+Choice program differs from its predecessor with regard to payment policies, enrollment and disenrollment policies, and the types of plans that can contract to provide care to Medicare beneficiaries.

Changes in children's health insurance coverage occur with far greater frequency than the modest year-to-year changes in the proportion uninsured or the proportion with different types of coverage would suggest.

By Marilyn Ellwood & Carol Irvin Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. 50 Church Street, Fourth Floor Cambridge, MA 02138 April 14, 2000

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Prescription drugs play an ever-increasing role in modern medicine. New medications are improving health outcomes and quality of life, replacing surgery and other invasive treatments, and quickening recovery for patients who receive these treatments. As important as prescription drugs are, not everyone has access to them.

Policy changes may have both positive and negative effects on programs that are not the primary target of the policy. Policymakers hope that the potential negative effects are minimized and do not outweigh the positive effects on the target program as well as on other programs.