Publications and Reports
Kaiser HealthPoll Report: Public Opinion on Health Care Costs
Kaiser HealthPoll Report, May/June 2003 Edition
"Tracking Health Care Costs: Trends Stabilize but Remain High in 2002"
This Data Bulletin document discusses recent trends in health care cost growth.
Center for Studying Health System Change, June 2003
Kaiser Family Foundation: Is the State Fiscal Crisis Over? A 2004 State Budget Update
This paper, which updates a September 2003 analysis by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, finds that although the state fiscal situation is improving, states are by no means out of the woods yet.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2004
"States Respond to Fiscal Pressure: A 50-State Update of State Medicaid Spending Growth and Cost Containment Actions - Report"
This report, based on a brief survey update of state officials conducted in December identifies changes related to Medicaid spending growth and cost containment that have taken place since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2004.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2004
"Tracking Health Care Costs: Trends Slow in First Half of 2003"
Health care spending growth per privately insured American slowed in the first half of 2003, increasing 8.5 percent, a significant drop from the 10 percent increase in the second half of 2002.
Center for Studying Health System Change, December 2003
Kaiser Family Foundation: Employer Health Benefits 2003 Annual Survey
The survey tracks trends in employer health insurance coverage, the cost of that coverage, and other topical health insurance issues.
An article based on this year's survey findings also appears in the September/October 2003 issue of Health Affairs.
This page includes a Summary of Findings, the report, a chartpack and supplemental charts.
Kaiser Family Foundation, September 2003
"Getting Serious About Excessive Medicare Spending: A Purchasing Model"
"...There is an imperative to transform the traditional Medicare program from that of a claims payer to that of a strategic purchaser, able to adopt a broad array of approaches and to use a comprehensive set of tools used by private plans, but in a more transparent and accountable way."
Health Affairs, December 10, 2003
"Perspective: Addressing Variations: Is There Hope For The Future?"
"In this Perspective we describe key challenges in addressing variations in the context of these recent clarifications. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) needs to move forward on information-sharing interventions and use demonstrations to pursue innovative strategies to improve the delivery of care through its purchasing power."
Health Affairs, December 10, 2003
"Reducing The Growth Of Medicare Spending: Geographic Versus Patient-Based Strategies"
This paper explores the potential of two alternative approaches for reducing the rate of growth in Medicare spending.
Health Affairs, December 10 2003
Kaiser Family Foundation: State Responses to Budget Crisis in 2004: An Overview of Ten States
In this report we examine how ten states from around the nation have responded to their budget crises in fiscal year 2004.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2004
CBO Testimony - "Health Care Spending and the Uninsured"
CBO Director's Douglas Holtz-Eakin statement before the Senate
Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions.
January 28, 2004
"Bush Discusses Plans To Expand Health Coverage to Uninsured, Address Health Care Spending" (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 1/21/2004)
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Bush called upon members of Congress to improve access to health care and to contain health costs by passing legislation that would permit the formation of association health plans, give tax credits to help people purchase health insurance, cap awards in medical malpractice lawsuits to help decrease insurance premiums and encourage people to purchase health savings accounts, the New York Times reports (Bumiller/Stevenson, New York Times, 1/21).
"The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2005 to 2014"
CBO, January 2004
"The Sad History of Cost Containment as Told in One Chart"
This analysis traces the effectiveness of government and private sector attempts to reign in health care costs over the past three decades and finds that no approach that has been tried in the past 35 years has had a lasting impact.
Health Affairs, January 23, 2002
"Comparison of CBO and Administration Estimates of the Effect of H.R. 1 on Direct Spending"
"The Administration's estimate of $534 billion in outlays through 2013 is $139 billion higher than CBO's $395 billion estimate. Almost all of that difference is attributable to our estimates of the Part D drug benefit and the Medicare Advantage program."
CBO, February 2, 2004
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