News Releases

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. population experienced the most significant two-year decline in life expectancy in roughly a century, according to new research by KFF, with data showing that COVID-19 deaths disproportionately impacted people of color and exacerbating longstanding racial disparities in life expectancy. While overall U.S. life expectancy declined…

A new KFF analysis reviews exceptions to abortion bans and describes how the stated aim to provide life-saving and health-preserving abortion care may not be achieved in practice. Abortion is currently banned in 14 states and many other states have attempted to ban or severely restrict abortion access. Exceptions to…

Two new KFF analyses examine the potential impact of Medicare coverage of new prescription drugs for obesity and Alzheimer’s disease on program spending and beneficiary out-of-pocket costs, as well as the role that the Inflation Reduction Act could play in mitigating these effects. Manufacturers of both types of drugs are…

Private insurance companies are expecting to pay out about $1.1 billion in rebates this fall under an Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision that requires insurers to spend the bulk of customers’ premium payments on care, a new KFF analysis finds. Rebates are based on insurers’ experiences over the previous three…

After the public health emergency ends on May 11, private health plans will no longer be required to cover the full cost of COVID-19 tests ordered or administered by a clinician or to reimburse consumers for at-home rapid tests. To estimate what consumers might have to pay for tests, KFF’s…

A new KFF analysis finds that an estimated 1.7 million Medicaid enrollees could become ineligible for federal Medicaid under proposed work requirements and presents state-by-state projections, based on estimates of coverage loss from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). States could continue to provide Medicaid to those enrollees but would not…

A new KFF analysis finds that between 8 and 24 million people across the U.S. could be disenrolled from Medicaid during the unwinding of the program’s continuous enrollment provision. The estimates draw on data collected through KFF’s recent survey of state Medicaid and CHIP officials, conducted with the Georgetown University…

The Nation Overall Also Experienced Higher Rates of Premature Deaths than Peer Countries During the COVID-19 pandemic, people of color on average died at younger ages than White adults, resulting in substantial racial disparities in premature death and years of life lost, a new analysis finds. The analysis examines the…

KFF Health News has taken top honors in the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation’s 2023 Awards in Journalism and Research for its series “Diagnosis: Debt.” The multifaceted reporting partnership among KFF Health News, NPR, and CBS News explores the scale, impact, and causes of medical debt in…

Yesterday, the Biden Administration announced a plan to expand eligibility for Medicaid and ACA Marketplace health coverage to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. A KFF analysis finds 47% of individuals likely eligible for DACA are uninsured compared to 10% of U.S. born individuals in their age group. The…