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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.
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The October KFF Health Tracking Poll explores experiences with unpaid caregiving, and favorability of expansion of home and community based services (HCBS). It also examines experiences with difficulty affording and putting of health care services among seniors, favorability of the ACA and experience with determining eligibility for lower cost insurance as part of the COVID relief package.
Most people will need to take time off work to care for themselves or their families at some point, but only one in five (21%) workers have access to paid family leave through their employer. Congress is considering creating a universal paid family and medical leave program as part of the Build Back Better Act.
This data note from the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll explores the public's views on Medicare drug price negotiation, including how arguments on both sides impact support and opposition; confidence in leaders to do the right thing on drug pricing; and experiences with prescription drug costs.
The latest KFF Health Tracking Poll explores the public's views on the U.S. role in distributing COVID vaccines to other countries, health care priorities for Congress, prescription drug regulations and price negotiations, and affordability changes in the COVID-19 relief bill.
Most states require parental consent at this point, though the landscape may be shifting slightly as more jurisdictions seek to encourage vaccination of young people. Parents and parental consent laws will play a critical role in the COVID-19 vaccination effort to reach children in the U.S., particularly as authorization moves to even younger ages.
This report from the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor examines vaccine attitudes and experiences among Hispanic adults in the U.S., including key groups such as those with lower incomes, the uninsured, and those who are potentially undocumented. It finds that many unvaccinated Hispanic adults are eager to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and barriers to access include information gaps, cost concerns, requests for documentation, and immigration concerns.
Before the FDA expanded the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorization for 12 to 15 year olds this week, the latest KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor reported that 30 percent of parents of children ages 12 to 15 said they would get their child vaccinated right away.
Most adults nationally say they have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and few say they haven’t but want to do so right away, posing a new challenge for the nation’s vaccination efforts. The latest report also explores parents' intentions for their kids, confidence in vaccines' safety, and a variety of potential incentives and requirements to increase vaccination uptake.
Staffing to administer the COVID-19 vaccines is now the most common challenge for community health centers' vaccination programs, overtaking the previously reported vaccine supply challenges.
Among excess deaths in 2020, the average person lost 14 years of life in the U.S. compared to an average of 8 years in peer countries before the age of 75. The higher premature excess mortality rate among people of color in the U.S., and in the U.S. as a whole compared to similar countries, is likely due in part to higher COVID-19 risk factor rates and broader racial inequities.
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