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.
Rates of self-reported long COVID are one-quarter to one-third higher among adults who are female, transgender, Hispanic, and without a high-school degree than among all adults, according to federal survey data. In this policy watch, we consider whether long COVID could exacerbate existing disparities in health and employment.
Rapidly rising rates of deaths by suicide and drug overdose among people of color, along with disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, further underscore inequities in access to mental health care and treatment and highlight the importance of centering equity in diagnostics, care, and treatment.
The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) includes a number of climate, tax, and health care provisions and prescription drug reforms. This policy watch explores the potential impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on overall Medicaid spending as well as implications for Medicaid beneficiaries.
This post examines Medicaid’s current role in providing coverage for EPSDT and school-based health services, current challenges, and changes to these services included in the new the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
This post examines the potential for this year's midterm elections to decide the fate of Medicaid expansion, with gubernatorial races in 10 of the 12 states that have not expanded, including Georgia, Kansas and Wisconsin, where the gubernatorial race is considered a toss-up. South Dakota voters also will decide a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative.
This policy watch provides an update on the status of state adoption and implementation of the Medicaid 12-month postpartum coverage extension option as states wrap up their 2022 legislative sessions.
Emerging COVID-19 variants, like the Omicron subvariant BA.5 that has recently caused a surge in cases, may pose new risks to children and create challenges for the back-to-school season.
Children may also continue to face challenges due to the ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect children’s physical and mental health, considers what the findings mean for the upcoming back-to-school season, and explores recent policy responses.
Federal policymakers have taken several actions to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on families and children by providing state fiscal relief, increased nutrition assistance, Medicaid funding, and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); however, some of this assistance has or will expire. This brief examines hardship across three metrics—difficulty paying for normal household expenses, food sufficiency, and uncertainty in paying for rent or mortgage payments for households with children and by income.
Long COVID has been described as our “next national health disaster” and the “pandemic after the pandemic,” but we know little about how many people are affected, how long it will last for those affected, and how it could change employment and health coverage landscapes. This policy watch reviews what we know and outlines key questions to watch for regarding employment and coverage outcomes. We continue to follow the research on who is most at risk of long COVID and whether there are interventions that can reduce its incidence, length, or severity.
This policy watch examines the intersection of Medicaid coverage policies with state actions to ban abortion.
© 2025 KFF