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.
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in health programs and activities receiving federal funds. Here are the significant ways HHS's final rule would narrow the scope of this regulation.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides enhanced federal matching funds to states that expand Medicaid to nonelderly adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL, $17,236/year for an individual in 2019). The ACA enhanced match (93% in 2019, and 90% in 2020 and thereafter) is substantially higher than states’ traditional Medicaid matching rate. A few states have sought Section 1115 demonstration waiver authority from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to…
Both the Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 (BCRA) and the House's American Health Care Act (AHCA) go beyond repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to make fundamental changes to Medicaid by setting a limit on federal funding through a per capita cap or block grant. The BCRA also includes additional changes that would further reduce federal spending for states with high per enrollee spending, limit state financing mechanisms, allow states…
As the U.S. Senate continues to debate their plan to repeal and replace the ACA, the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll finds the public souring on the effort with a growing majority opposed to the plan and a large share that say the plan does not fulfill most of the promises President Trump has made about health care. Even among Republicans, the poll finds that about half would be “less likely” to support the…
Lowering Drug Costs and Maintaining Pre-existing Condition Protections Top Public’s Health Priorities for Congress With the first votes of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season approaching, large majorities of Democrats – and most of the public overall – support both of the major approaches primary candidates have put forward to expand coverage and make health care more affordable, though a public option remains significantly more popular than Medicare-for-all, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds.…
This month's KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that about four in ten are aware of the federal judge's ruling that the ACA is no longer valid but once made aware, most disapprove of the ruling. This poll also examines the public's favorability toward expanding the role of public health care programs, and majorities across partisan groups have a favorable opinion of programs such as Medicare buy-in and Medicaid buy-in, with a national Medicare-for-all being less…
This brief explores the potential implications of different ACA repeal scenarios and related administrative actions on people with HIV.
This brief explains the key AHCA provisions that would reshape the private market to more closely resemble the pre-Affordable Care Act period, and the effects of these changes on adults ages 50-64. The brief also discusses how changes to Medicaid could affect older, low-income adults, and how an increase in the number of uninsured older adults could have implications for the Medicare program in the future.
Medicaid, the provider of health insurance coverage for about one in five Americans and the largest payer for long-term care services in the community and nursing homes, continues to be a key part of health policy debates at the federal and state level. Key Medicaid issues to watch in 2020 include: Medicaid expansion developments; Section 1115 waiver activity; enrollment and spending trends; benefits, payment and delivery system reforms, and the implications of the 2020 elections.
The debate among Democratic presidential candidates about how to reform the health care system largely boils down to whether to build on the Affordable Care Act and create an option for people to enroll in Medicare or create a Medicare for all plan that covers everyone. On the other side of the partisan divide, President Trump has repeatedly promised a health care plan, but not yet delivered one. The president has vowed to repeal the…
© 2026 KFF