November 2, 2009 - A vast majority of leaders in health care and health policy believe Medicare has been successful in providing access to care and stable coverage to the elderly and disabled individuals; however only a small percentage think the program has realized its potential to achieve other important goals, like using its leverage as the country's largest purchaser of services to control costs and promote a high performance health system.
October 5, 2009 - The costs of universal coverage are partly offset by later savings in Medicare. New Commonwealth Fund-supported research found that individuals who lacked health insurance at some point between the ages of 51 and 64 cost Medicare more than those who had continuous coverage in the years prior to Medicare eligibility.
May 12, 2009 - Elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more satisfied with their health care, and experience fewer problems accessing and paying for care, than Americans with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), according to a study by Commonwealth Fund researchers published today on the Health Affairs Web site.
May 4, 2009 - Private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will be paid $11.4 billion more in 2009 than what the same beneficiaries would have cost in the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, according to a new report released today by The Commonwealth Fund. This new analysis, The Continuing Costs of Privatization: Extra Payments to Medicare Advantage Plans Jump to $11.4 Billion in 2009, estimates that since MA was enacted in 2004, $43 billion in extra payments have been made.
April 2, 2009 - One of five Medicare beneficiaries discharged from the hospital is readmitted within 30 days, and half of non-surgical patients are readmitted to the hospital without having seen an outpatient doctor in follow-up, according to a Commonwealth Fund-supported study in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
November 3, 2008 - Leaders in health care and health care policy expressed robust support for fundamentally reforming the way health care providers are paid and resounding dissatisfaction with the current payment system, known as "fee-for-service."
October 21, 2008 - Private fee-for-service (PFFS) Medicare Advantage plans will be paid an average 16.6 percent more in 2008 compared to what the same enrollees would have cost in the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.
September 4, 2008 - Private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will be paid an average 12.4 percent more per enrollee in 2008 compared to what the same enrollee would have cost in the traditional Medicare fee-for-service program, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.
August 21, 2007 - The share of seniors without drug coverage dropped significantly under Medicare's new drug benefit, according to a survey of more than 16,000 seniors. However, seniors who enrolled in a Medicare Part D plan did not fare as well as those who relied on other sources of drug coverage, such as employer-sponsored coverage or benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs
February 24, 2006 - A new study points to great potential for the new Medicare drug benefit to provide assistance to the estimated one-fifth of the nation's nursing home population without drug coverage.
October 4, 2005 - Adding a comprehensive Medicare Extra, or Part E, plan to Medicare would eliminate the need for beneficiaries to purchase a private drug plan and Medigap supplemental coverage, and help to quell the confusion and dissatisfaction surrounding the new Medicare Part D drug benefit, according to a new study released today as a Health Affairs Web exclusive.
July 26, 2005 - Medicare, which turns forty this month, has been successful in ensuring access to medical care for beneficiaries, according to the overwhelming majority of respondents to the latest Commonwealth Fund Health Care Opinion Leaders survey.
June 28, 2005 - Concerned about their future financial and health security, a substantial majority of older Americans would favor setting aside a portion of their earnings in a special account to save for future medical expenses not covered by Medicare, according to a new Commonwealth Fund survey report.
May 6, 2005 - Forty years after its creation, the federal Medicare program has succeeded in ensuring access to needed care and improving the provision of preventive services to millions of elderly and disabled beneficiaries, and Medicare patients are more satisfied with their care than privately insured adults.
April 19, 2005 - Four in 10 seniors tell researchers they haven't taken all the drugs their doctors prescribed in the past year—either because cost was too high, they didn't think the drugs were helping, or they didn't think they needed them, according to a new survey.