The Commonwealth FundOpinion

Federal Policy Changes Are Making It Harder to Get COVID Shots at Pharmacies

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacies emerged as critical vaccine access sites, overtaking physicians’ offices, community ...
Opinion
The Commonwealth FundOpinion

Changes to Medicaid Threaten Contraceptive Accessibility

Reliable access to comprehensive contraceptive services in Medicaid has led to lower rates of unintended pregnancy and improved the health and economic well-being of women and their families. However, ...
The Commonwealth Fund

Could Notifications Help Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries Utilize Their Unused Benefits?

Plans extensively market their supplemental benefits; one of four MA enrollees report choosing their plans over traditional Medicare because of them. To learn more, the Commonwealth Fund and SSRS ...
The Commonwealth Fund

How Inflation Rebates Can Curb Drug Price Increases

To discourage price hikes on brand-name drugs, the IRA requires manufacturers to pay inflation rebates to Medicare if prices ...
The Commonwealth Fund

Positive Outliers: How Some Rural Communities Maintain Access to Labor and Delivery Services

In 2024, Texas increased supplemental payments for rural hospitals from $500 to $1,500 per birth, bringing the total compensation per Medicaid birth to $8,100. (For comparison, employer-sponsored ...
The Commonwealth Fund

Millions of Community Health Center Patients to Lose Coverage When Tax Credits Expire

This analysis estimates the impact of the loss of enhanced premium tax credits (ePTC) for marketplace coverage on community ...
The Commonwealth FundOpinion

Rethinking Prior Authorization in Medicare Advantage

Prior authorization can help encourage the efficient use of health care resources but too often, it delays treatment patients ...
The Commonwealth FundOpinion

Reducing or Eliminating the Title X Family Planning Program Would Restrict Contraceptive Access Nationwide

The Title X Family Planning Program provides equitable and reliable access to contraception nationwide and is a critical ...
Commonwealth Fund

State Scorecard on Medicare Performance

Why a State Medicare Scorecard? Medicare, established 60 years ago, provides health care coverage for more than 68 million Americans, including nearly all adults age 65 and older as well as 7 million ...
Commonwealth Fund

The 340B Drug Pricing Program: How It Works and Why It’s Controversial

The 340B Drug Pricing Program was created to improve access to care for low-income and uninsured patients at safety-net hospitals and clinics. Over the years, however, critics have argued that the ...
Commonwealth Fund

Maternal Mortality in the United States, 2025

This brief was originally published in December 2020 and updated in July 2025. In 2023, at a time when maternal mortality was declining worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the ...
Commonwealth Fund

Medicaid Cuts Could Jeopardize Access to Critical Long-Term Care Services for People with Disabilities and Older Adults

Congressional Republicans are considering making major funding cuts to Medicaid, the primary payer in the United States for long-term services and supports (LTSS). LTSS include services delivered in ...