The first in a series of 2008 election briefs on health policy issues provides key facts on the nation’s uninsured population, presents broad policy options for coverage, and offers questions to assess the presidential candidates' plans.

With the problem of the uninsured continuing to grow, states have taken the lead in developing proposals to reform of their health care systems with the goal of significantly increasing the number of people with health coverage.  An interactive map and related summaries of plans track which states have enacted or are planning comprehensive initiatives to cover their uninsured population.

A collection of resources on health reform issues from the Kaiser Family Foundation

With policymakers debating potential changes to the tax treatment of health insurance benefit, this issue brief illustrates how families with different incomes are affected by the tax subsidies for private health insurance included in current law.

This fact sheet provides an overview of Indiana's new Medicaid waiver program, the Healthy Indiana Plan, which is the first that allows a state to use Medicaid funds to provide a benefit package modeled after a high-deductible plan and health savings account to previously uninsured adults.  This piece examines key components of the plan and identifies key issues to consider.  

Gary Claxton, a Kaiser Family Foundation vice president, testified about state-based health reform efforts as part of the Senate Finance Committee's Prepare For Launch Health Reform Summit. His testimony examines the role of Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as the way various federal laws and policies may limit innovation at the state level.

This fact sheet provides a progress report two years since Massachusetts enacted landmark legislation to provide health care coverage to nearly all state residents. 

Will health fade as a public concern as the economy rises as the public's top priority? How are concerns about health and the economy linked? Does the rise of economic concerns present obstacles or opportunities for health reform? In his latest Pulling It Together essay, Foundation President Drew Altman takes on these questions, drawing from the Foundations's latest polls and analyses in a column called Health IN the Economy.

Published as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive, this Kaiser Family Foundation study finds relatively few uninsured households have enough financial assets to cover the cost-sharing in consumer-driven health plans tied to Health Savings Accounts.

The second installment of the new Pulling It Together, from Drew Altman series lays out the steps that could lead to the first major national health reform debate since the early nineties. The series of charts and accompanying text illustrate the three primary stages and "make or break" decision points that could mark the path to a major health reform initiative or knock it off track. This new section of the Web site "pulls together" analysis, data, and ideas from across the Foundation's work to try to illuminate critical health policy issues.