Election Brief Reviews Current, Future Medicare Issues; Snapshots Examine Relationship Between Employer-Sponsored Insurance, Employee Compensation

• "Medicare Now and In the Future," Kaiser Family Foundation: The second in a series of election briefs on health policy issues presents an overview of Medicare, detailing whom the program covers, what services are provided, how care is supplied to the elderly and disabled and what future challenges the program faces. The brief highlights Medicare's long-term financing challenges, the role of private plans, the prescription drug benefit and the efficacy of current benefits. The brief also underscores how presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) might address key Medicare issues, if elected (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 10/2).
  
  
• "Compensation for Workers With and Without Access to Health Benefits at Work," "Health Benefit Offer Rates and Employee Earnings," Kaiser Family Foundation: The two analyses in the Kaiser Family Foundation's Snapshots: Health Care Costs series examine the relationships between employer-sponsored health benefits and employee earnings. The snapshots find that workers who do not have access to employer-sponsored coverage on average receive lower wages and other compensation compared with workers who are offered health benefits. The analyses also suggest that businesses with higher-wage workers are more likely to offer health insurance and other benefits to employees. Both analyses are based on data from the National Compensation Survey, which was conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 10/2).