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Medicare: FY2008 Budget Issues

Description: This report discusses President's budget request to Congress for Medicare, for the following federal fiscal year, along with projections for the five-year budget window. The President’s 2008 budget includes Medicare legislative proposals with estimated savings of $4.3 billion in 2008 and $65.6 billion over the five-year budget window.
Date: February 6, 2007
Creator: Chaikind, Hinda; Jacobson, Gretchen A.; Hahn, Jim; Morgan, Paulette C.; O'Sullivan, Jennifer & Stockdale, Holly Sue
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Overview of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003

Description: This report examines the the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, which creates a prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries and establishes a new Medicare Advantage program to replace the current Medicare+Choice program.
Date: December 6, 2004
Creator: O'Sullivan, Jennifer; Chaikind, Hinda; Tilson, Sibyl; Boulanger, Jennifer & Morgan, Paulette
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Appropriations and Fund Transfers in the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Description: This report summarizes all the mandatory appropriations and Medicare trust fund transfers in the ACA and provides details on the status of obligation of these funds. The information is presented in two tables. The report also includes a brief discussion of the impact that sequestration is having on ACA mandatory spending. This report is periodically revised and updated to reflect important legislative and other developments.
Date: March 6, 2015
Creator: Redhead, C. Stephen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Health Insurance Premium Assistance for the Unemployed: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Description: This report discusses employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and barriers to accessing health insurance for the unemployed; provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) with respect to unemployment and health insurance; and potential impact of ARRA provisions on the unemployed.
Date: March 6, 2009
Creator: Mulvey, Janemarie; Chaikind, Hinda & Fernandez, Bernadette
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Health Care Spending: Context and Policy

Description: This report seeks to put health spending in context. Health care costs and spending are persistent concerns for the Congress. On one hand, policymakers worry about access to care and the burden of health costs on household and employer budgets. On the other hand, rising costs put growing pressure on the federal budget from Medicare, Medicaid, and tax expenditures for private health insurance.
Date: September 6, 2005
Creator: Jenson, Jennifer
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Requiring Individuals to Obtain Health Insurance: A Constitutional Analysis

Description: This report discusses the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), P.L. 111-148, as amended, Congress enacted a “minimum coverage provision,” which compels certain individuals to have a minimum level of health insurance. This report provides an analysis of the constitutionality of this provision requiring individuals to obtain health insurance.
Date: April 6, 2012
Creator: Staman, Jennifer; Brougher, Cynthia; Liu, Edward C.; Lunder, Erika K. & Thomas, Kenneth R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Medicare Home Health Benefit Primer: Benefit Basics and Issues

Description: This report describes home health eligibility criteria, home health services, characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries who use home health services, and home health providers. Further, this report describes in detail the Medicare home health prospective payment system (HH PPS), provides an overview of Medicare home health payments, and discusses issues for Congress related to the Medicare home health benefit.
Date: February 6, 2014
Creator: Talaga, Scott R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Tax Benefits for Health Insurance: Current Legislation

Description: This report discusses a variety of potential proposals to change the tax benefits for health insurance and medical expenses, including measures that would expand the availability and attractiveness of health savings accounts (HSAs), or employer tax credits.
Date: February 6, 2006
Creator: Lyke, Bob
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC): In Brief

Description: This report describes the eligibility criteria for the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC) and the types of health insurance to which the tax credit may be applied. The tax credit's purpose is to make the purchase of health insurance more affordable for eligible individuals. The report also briefly describes the administration of the HCTC program and receipt of the credit by eligible taxpayers; it concludes with a summary of the HCTC's statutory history.
Date: December 6, 2016
Creator: Fernandez, Bernadette
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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AIDS: International Problems and Issues

Description: This issue brief discusses the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus and its effects on the world, especially with regard to the welfare of developing nations and various facets of general international relations. Also discussed are the related issues for Congress and U.S. contributions to international AIDS relief efforts led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Date: January 6, 1988
Creator: McHugh, Lois B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Health Insurance: The Pro-Competition Proposals

Description: For more than a decade, Congress and the Executive Branch have tried to stem spiraling health care costs through various regulatory actions at the Federal and State levels. Planning laws, for example, focus regulatory attention on the capacity of the health care industry to provide health services. Other laws have created programs to monitor and control the use of services provided to individual patients. Direct wage and price controls were applied to the health industry in the early 1970's and… more
Date: December 6, 1982
Creator: Lundy, Janet P. & Markus, Glenn
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Prescription Drug Coverage Under Medicaid

Description: Medicaid is a joint federal-state entitlement program that pays for medical services on behalf of certain groups of low-income persons. It is the third largest social program in the federal budget, exceeded only by Social Security and Medicare and is typically the second largest spending item for states. This report discusses prescription drug policies under the program.
Date: February 6, 2008
Creator: Hearne, Jean
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Increasing Choice, Access, and Quality in Health Care for Americans Act (Division C of P.L. 114-255)

Description: This report summarizes the Increasing Choice, Access, and Quality in Health Care for Americans Act, enacted December 13, 2016, as Division C of the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255). It includes an overview and a breakdown of provisions by section.
Date: January 6, 2017
Creator: Uberoi, Namrata K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The False Claims Act, the Allison Engine Decision, and Possible Effects on Health Care Fraud Enforcement

Description: The False Claims Act (FCA), an important tool for combating fraud against the U.S. government, generally provides that a person who knowingly submits, or causes to be submitted, a false or fraudulent claim for payment to the U.S. government may be subject to civil penalties and damages. This report provides an overview of the FCA and the Allison Engine decision, analyzes how this decision could affect certain FCA health care claims, and discusses the proposed False Claims Correction Acts (S. 20… more
Date: November 6, 2008
Creator: Staman, Jennifer
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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U.S. and International Responses to the Global Spread of Avian Flu: Issues for Congress

Description: This report will provide an account of global H5N1-related human infections and deaths, outline U.S. government and international responses to the global spread of H5N1, discuss situations in various countries affected by H5N1, and present some foreign policy issues for Congress.
Date: February 6, 2006
Creator: Salaam-Blyther, Tiaji & Chanlett-Avery, Emma
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The 2009 Influenza Pandemic: An Overview

Description: This report describes the World Health Organization (WHO) process to determine the phase of a threatened or emerging flu pandemic, and touches on several related issues.
Date: August 6, 2009
Creator: Lister, Sarah A. & Redhead, C. Stephen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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ERISA Regulation of Health Plans: Fact Sheet

Description: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA, P.L. 93-406) places the regulation of employee benefit plans (including health plans) primarily under federal jurisdiction for about 124 million people. ERISA’s treatment of health plans is both complicated and confusing. ERISA has been interpreted as dividing health plans into two groups regulated differently under the law: about 54 million people are covered by self-insured plans for which the employer, rather than an insurer, assume… more
Date: March 6, 2003
Creator: Chaikind, Hinda Ripps
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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