Out-of-Pocket Burden of Health Care Spending and the Adequacy of the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy - The Commonwealth Fund

Authors: Becky A. Briesacher, Ph.D., Dennis Ross-Degnan, Sc.D., Anita K. Wagner, Pharm.D., Dr.P.H., Hassan Fouayzi, M.S., Fang Zhang, Ph.D., Jerry H. Gurwitz, M.D., and Stephen B. Soumerai, Sc.D.

Medications are among the biggest drivers of out-of-pocket health care costs in the United States. The burden falls particularly heavy on older adults, who, on average, take four to five drugs on a regular basis. This Commonwealth Fund–supported study examined the amount of household resources allocated to out-of-pocket health spending in the year before Medicare's Part D drug benefit took effect.

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What the Study Found

• In the year prior to Part D, more than half of Medicare families faced "burdensome" health care costs, meaning they spent more than 40 percent of their household resources on health care, after paying for housing, food, and other essentials.
• Medicare families in poor health directed 68 percent of nonessential resources to health care.
• Nearly two-thirds of out-of-pocket health care spending went to health insurance premiums and medications.
• About one-quarter of Medicare families with burdensome health care costs were not eligible for a low-income sub

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Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2009 - The Commonwealth Fund

by Gerard F. Anderson and Patricia Markovich

International comparisons of health care systems offer valuable tools to health ministers, policymakers, and academics wishing to evaluate the performance of their country's system. In this chartbook, data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)is used to compare health care systems and performance on a range of topics, including spending, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, prevention, and mortality. We present data across several industrialized countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy , the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Whenever possible, the authors present the median value of all 30 members of the OECD.
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Gov't adopts formula that doubles elderly poor

By HOPE YEN

The government took steps Tuesday to highlight the increasing numbers of poor Americans, adopting a revised formula that is expected to double the number of older people classified as living in poverty to nearly 1 in 5.

Under the new formula, overall poverty is expected to increase from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, to 15.8 percent, or 47.4 million, mostly due to rising expenses from medical care and other factors.

The new measure will not replace the official poverty rate but will be published alongside the traditional figure next year as a "supplement" for federal agencies and state governments, according to the directive announced Tuesday by the Commerce Department and White House.
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Health Care Bills Subsidize Out-of-Pocket Costs for Some - Health Blog - WSJ

By Anna Wilde Mathews

There’s been a lot of focus – including in my column today – on the subsidies that the health-overhaul bills would provide to aid lower-income people in paying their health insurance premiums.

But there’s another twist that may matter just as much to consumers: how much help those same folks will get with their out-of-pocket costs. This varies between the different bills now working their way through Congress. And as lawmakers try to crunch costs, these subsidies may be easier to trim because they’re less visible than the premium subsidies.

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Health Coverage and Expenses: Impact on Older Women's Economic Well-Being - Kaiser Family Foundation

In this article in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, researchers from the Kaiser Family Foundation examine how health issues that women face over the course of their lives, as well as policies that shape Medicare, Medicaid and other supplemental coverage, can affect retired women's economic well-being. They found that women's health care expenses were higher than men's; that older women paid for a greater share of their total spending out of pocket and that women faced a greater overall financial burden because they had less income at their disposal. Authors of the paper, all of whom work for the Foundation, included Alina Salganicoff, vice president and director of Women's Health Policy; Juliette Cubanski, principal policy analyst; Usha Ranji, principal policy analyst; and Tricia Neuman, vice president and director of the Medicare Policy Project. Journal Article