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.
This policy watch examines the burden of medical debt in North Carolina and the state’s new plan to leverage the Medicaid program to provide debt relief and support access to care for low- and middle-income North Carolinians.
The latest data on U.S. health spending are now available on the Health Spending Explorer, an interactive tool that allows users to explore trends in health spending by federal and local governments, insurers, nursing care, hospital, and other service providers, and consumers.
This brief analyzes data from the 2023 KFF Survey of Consumer Experiences with Health Insurance to get a current understanding of how Medicare is working for older adults and younger people with disabilities. The analysis shows that people with Medicare who are under 65 with disabilities experience more problems using their Medicare coverage, including access and cost-related problems, than beneficiaries who are 65 and older.
If you have Medicare, you should keep it. Companies that sell Marketplace plans are prohibited from selling these plans to you if they know you are covered by Medicare (this applies even if you have a Medicare Advantage plan, a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, or a Medigap policy).
The U.S territories – American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) – have faced longstanding fiscal and health challenges exacerbated by recent emergencies. This issue brief provides background on how Medicaid financing differs between U.S. territories and states and what these differences mean for funding as well as health care coverage and access.
Higher market concentration in Medicare Advantage insurance markets may lower the incentive for insurers to compete for potential enrollees by making plans more appealing through more comprehensive benefits or lower costs.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores why polls and surveys are essential for understanding health policy issues and aims to teach you how to evaluate polls effectively. It covers the importance of polls in policy analysis, key considerations for interpretation, polling methodologies, and questions to assess the usefulness of polls. The chapter concludes with real-world examples demonstrating how polling informs policy debates.
At a time when kitchen table economic problems are on voters’ minds, unexpected medical bills and health care costs top the public’s list of financial concerns, and voters who are struggling to pay their monthly bills are the most eager to hear the presidential candidates talk about economic and health care issues, the latest KFF…
“Short-term limited-duration” insurance plans are intended to fill a temporary gap in health coverage, such as when someone is between jobs. The maximum duration of short-term plans varies by state. Short-term plans must disclose to consumers that these plans are “NOT comprehensive health coverage.
This brief presents five key facts about Medicaid coverage among individuals living in rural areas. It draws on recent data to describe enrollment patterns, differences by state Medicaid expansion status, characteristics of the rural Medicaid population, and patterns of health care use among enrollees.
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