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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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Several reproductive health care services have been considered "elective" and postponed during the pandemic. While much of the care deemed "non-essential" isn't life-threatening, delaying care for too long can result in negative health outcomes.
Large majorities of Americans think it should be illegal for either employers or health care providers to discriminate against people because they are lesbian, gay or bisexual, or transgender, a new KFF poll finds. This includes large majorities of Republicans, independents and Democrats across a range of questions about such discrimination. The poll gauges the public’s views following two major developments this month that move in opposite directions on LGBTQ protections. First, the Trump administration…
Most of the Public Favor a Range of Police Reforms to Curb Excessive Force, though Partisan Gaps Exist on Some Key Proposals Amid nationwide protests against racial bias in law enforcement and beyond, a new KFF poll finds that the vast majority (71%) of Black Americans say they’ve experienced some form of racial discrimination or mistreatment during their lifetimes – including nearly half (48%) who say at one point that they felt their life was…
69.4 million adult American workers – approximately four in 10 – are potentially ineligible for emergency paid sick leave benefits. Approximately 25% of those workers (17.7 million workers) are in the health care industry. Seventy-five percent of excluded or exempted workers are women.
A new chart collection explores the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. health care workforce, and finds that between February and April 2020, nearly 1.5 million health care jobs were lost. While more than 300,000 health services jobs were recovered in May 2020, mainly in dental offices, employment in some health care settings continued to decrease. The rise in health care unemployment follows a sharp decline in utilization and revenue for non-emergency services. Many providers…
A new KFF analysis finds nearly one in four workers (24%) are considered at high risk of serious illness if they get infected by the novel coronavirus, highlighting the challenges that businesses, public offices and other employers face as they move toward reopening. The analysis estimates 37.7 million workers (based on their work status in 2018) are at high risk of serious illness from COVID-19. This includes 10 million who are at least 65 years…
A new Coronavirus Policy Watch post from KFF explores how state responses to limit abortion access during the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn renewed attention to the provision of medication abortion using telemedicine approaches. Medication abortion via telemedicine is a method that can be used to safely provide women with access to abortion care while social distancing, preserving personal protective equipment, and limiting risk of exposure to coronavirus. A new telemedicine protocol --“no-test” medication abortions-- has…
A new KFF brief provides an overview of the legal basis for state stay at home orders in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as current legal challenges to these orders. Stay at home orders and other mandatory social distancing measures have received broad public support, but also have drawn some public protests. Different stakeholders have brought at least 20 legal challenges claiming these orders violate the Constitution or state law. Most courts to…
Roughly 3.4 million individuals work in food production industries, more than a third of them in animal production and processing where there have been several COVID-19 outbreaks, a new KFF analysis shows. Workers at meat and poultry plants face a higher risk of coronavirus exposure due to the close quarters of their workplaces. The majority of workers in food production – which also include crop production, seafood, and other food manufacturing-- are White and U.S.…
Nearly One in Four Expect a Family Member to Turn to Medicaid in the Coming Year, and Majorities across Party Lines Oppose Medicaid Cuts to Address State Budget Shortfalls Amid the threat of coronavirus, nearly half (48%) of Americans say someone in their family has skipped or delayed getting some type of medical care due to the pandemic, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. This includes 11% who say the person’s condition worsened due…
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