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.
On February 14, 2026, CMS released a dataset with provider-level spending data that the agency suggests could be used to identify unusual billing patterns for specific services, states, or providers. This policy watch describes what the data include, what they exclude, and how they could potentially lead to mistaken conclusions given the limitations of the data.
This issue brief explains why it can be misleading to compare the first year of Rural Health Transformation Program allocations with estimated Medicaid cuts, which will be implemented on a gradual basis and not fully take effect until 2027, after the rural health fund is exhausted.
Nebraska is the first state to announce it plans to begin enforcing Medicaid work requirements early, starting May 1, 2026. Initial reports from the state during its recent January Medicaid Advisory Committee (MAC) meeting and data from KFF’s Medicaid work requirements tracker provide early insights into how Nebraska is preparing for implementation.
This policy watch discusses the implications for the U.S. health care workforce of the recent DOS immigrant visa pause for individuals from 75 countries deemed more likely to be a public charge.
Starting in May of last year, HHS Secretary Kennedy and the CDC/ACIP began to make changes to the federal vaccine schedule for children, culminating in an announcement on January 5 of this year with the most wide-ranging changes to date. This policy brief tracks the number of states that have announced they are no longer following federal government recommendations for childhood vaccines as of January 20, 2026.
After failed Senate votes late last year and no subsequent bipartisan agreement, the enhanced premium tax credits expired as of January 1. Some states, particularly those operating State-Based Marketplaces (SBMs), have been preparing for this possibility for months and are moving to blunt the impact on consumers by implementing their own state-funded subsidies and implementing other programs aimed at stabilizing the cost of unsubsidized premiums.
This brief looks at newly announced changes by HHS to the pediatric vaccination schedule, which reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all children. Implications of these changes for childhood vaccination rates and trust in public health are discussed.
This policy watch describes recent Trump administration changes to Medicaid vaccine reporting requirements and explores what the end of state reporting requirements may mean for how the U.S. tracks childhood vaccinations rates.
This policy watch provides an overview of recent changes to federal vaccine recommendations in the U.S. and what they mean for insurance coverage.
Proposals from some Republicans in Congress would effectively repeal some or all of the ACA premium tax credits and replace them with contributions to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) or something similar. Senator Rick Scott proposes “Trump Health Freedom Accounts” and Senator Bill Cassidy proposes HSA contributions available only for people who enroll in bronze level ACA plans to pay for out-of-pocket health care costs.
© 2026 KFF
