The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent, hosts the KFF Health News weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” Previously, she spent 16 years as a health policy correspondent for NPR, where she helped lead the network’s coverage of the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition. In 2005, she received the…
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony before the Senate Finance Committee follows the ouster last week of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez. At least four other senior CDC officials resigned in protest. What are the biggest takeaways? What comes next? Tune in for a post-hearing discussion with KFF Health News correspondents Stephanie Armour, Julie Rovner, and Arthur Allen, and KFF’s Josh Michaud, associate director…
In his first public testimony on Capitol Hill since taking office, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on May 14 appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and a House Appropriations subcommittee. Lawmakers questioned the secretary about the mass layoffs at HHS, funding cuts, and other changes. Afterward, KFF Health News correspondents Julie Rovner, Stephanie Armour, and Darius Tahir, along with KFF Senior Vice President Jennifer Kates, recapped…
The upcoming election is looking more and more like a fork in the road for U.S. health policy. KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and podcast host Julie Rovner and a panel of top policy experts and journalists discussed this pivotal moment in health care politics and took questions from the audience.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores the federal government’s role in health policy for the fragmented U.S. health care system. It examines the impact of the three federal branches and goes into further detail about the Department of Health and Human Services structure and the major congressional committees dealing with health care. It also briefly outlines the federal budgetary and regulatory process.
The new season of the "American Diagnosis" podcast will explore the impact of hundreds of years of adversity on the health of Indigenous peoples in America, examining the resilience of the Navajo Nation during the covid-19 pandemic as an entry point into this history. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Navajo Nation made headlines for having the nation’s highest covid infection rates. And yet the Navajo people, also known as the Diné, rebounded spectacularly. They…
KFF Media Fellowships 2018 California Site Visits In October 2018, in the run up to the midterm elections, KFF invited a group of journalists with a strong focus on health policy and state health reform to participate in a week-long fellowship focused on California's health care landscape and the national implications of the state-level policy work there. The consolidation of hospitals and health systems, health insurance coverage, reproductive and family planning, as well as state…
Kaiser Media Fellowships 2017 Washington, D.C., Site Visits In November 2017, the Foundation invited a group of journalists from regional news organizations with a strong focus on health policy and state health reform to participate in a three-day fellowship focused on health care costs, coverage and access issues, and the changes proposed by the Trump Administration under debate at a state and federal level. The site visit, which took place at KFF’s Washington, D.C., office,…
Kaiser Media Fellowships 2016 Louisiana Site Visits In June 2016, the Foundation invited a group of journalists with a strong focus on health policy and state health reform to participate in a week-long fellowship program focused on health care in Louisiana, as it prepared to become the first state in the Deep South to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. The site visits in Baton Rouge and New Orleans gave the journalists the opportunity to…
Health of the Healthcare System is a diagnostic look at the state of our healthcare system. How does the U.S. healthcare system compare to health systems of other high-income countries, and how has it fared over time? Kaiser Health News and former-NPR reporter, Julie Rovner, takes us through a check-up of our system by assessing four key areas: how healthy we are, the quality of care we receive, how much it costs, and how accessible…
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