KFF Health Tracking Poll: The Public's Views of Funding Reductions to Medicaid

This KFF Health Tracking Poll was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF. The survey was conducted May 5 – 26, 2025, online and by telephone among a nationally representative sample of 2,539 U.S. adults in English (2,444) and Spanish (95).

The sample includes 2,028 adults who were reached through an address-based sample (ABS) and completed the survey online (1,802) or over the phone (226). An additional 511 respondents were reached through a random digit dial telephone (RDD) sample of prepaid (pay-as-you-go) cell phone numbers. Among this prepaid cell phone component, 260 were invited to the web survey via short message service (SMS) while another 251 were interviewed by phone (CATI). Marketing Systems Groups (MSG) provided both the ABS and RDD sample. All fieldwork was managed by SSRS of Glen Mills, PA; sampling design and weighting was done in collaboration with KFF.

Both ABS and RDD samples were stratified to increase the likelihood of reaching certain populations. Both the ABS and RDD sample frames included disproportionate stratification aimed at reaching Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black respondents. The ABS was also stratified based on model-based prediction of household-members’ party identification (Republican, Democratic, or independent).

Respondents received a $15 incentive for their participation, with interviews completed by phone receiving a mailed check and web respondents receiving a $15 electronic gift card incentive. The online questionnaire included two questions designed to establish that respondents were paying attention and cases were monitored for data quality including item non-response, mean length, and straight lining. Cases were removed from the data if they failed two or more of these quality checks. Based on this criterion, four cases were removed.

The combined ABS and cell phone samples were weighted to match the sample’s demographics to the national U.S. adult population using data from three sources: the Census Bureau’s 2024 Current Population Survey (CPS), the 2021 Census Planning Database, and the 2023 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) data. The demographic variables used for weighting include gender by age, gender by education, age by education, race/ethnicity by education, education, race, census region, population density, and frequency of internet usage. The weights also take into account differences in the probability of selection for each sample type (ABS and prepaid cell phone). This includes adjustment for the sample design and geographic stratification of the samples, and within household probability of selection.

The margin of sampling error including the design effect for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Numbers of respondents and margins of sampling error for key subgroups are shown in the table below. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Sample sizes and margins of sampling error for other subgroups are available by request. Sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error and there may be other unmeasured error in this or any other public opinion poll. The Medicaid and health care costs module included in this survey was designed, analyzed, and paid for by KFF. The demographic questions included in this study were developed and funded jointly by CNN and KFF as part of an unrelated project, with each organization having independent editorial control over its portion of the survey. KFF Public Opinion and Survey Research is a charter member of the Transparency Initiative of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.