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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.
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Use of digital behavioral health services increased during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person visits were limited. This brief examines how different types of mental health apps are used, how federal policies during the pandemic affected the scope of services they could provide, and key issues to watch.
These FAQs review mental health and substance use disorder coverage and cost sharing in Medicare and discuss recent policy changes related to coverage of mental health and substance use disorder treatments.
This brief gauges Medicaid enrollees’ perspectives on their health insurance, based on findings from KFF’s Survey of Consumer Experiences with Health Insurance, fielded February 21 through March 14, 2023. This brief provides an overview of the survey findings, describes Medicaid enrollees’ views of their health and health coverage, explores problems those with Medicaid experience, compares how Medicaid performs relative to Medicare and private coverage, and reviews variation in Medicaid experiences.
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 brief discusses the longstanding legal doctrine, Chevron deference, being challenged in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and includes examples of what could be at stake for health care consumers should federal courts no longer use this doctrine to address litigation related to federal health regulations. The focus here is on patient and consumer protection regulation, but overturning the Chevron deference would have implications in all areas of health care.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicaid, the primary U.S. program providing comprehensive coverage of health care and long-term services and supports to about 80 million low-income people. Originating in 1965 and expanding with the Affordable Care Act, the chapter reviews Medicaid's evolution, including 2025 changes, and its joint federal and state financing and administration. It discusses how state-level flexibility in managing Medicaid leads to variation in coverage, spending, health care delivery, and access across…
This slideshow explores prescription drug spending for people who are covered by large employer health plans.
The annual blitz of ads for Medicare Advantage plans has become a rite of fall, as health insurers, brokers and other third parties seek to court enrollees for these private plans, which are offered to the 65 million people with Medicare during the program’s open enrollment season. In advance of the open enrollment period starting on October 15, KFF reviewed more than 1,200 unique television ads that aired more than 643,000 times last year to…
This survey looks at the public's health care priorities for the new Congress, including price transparency, mental health, abortion, Medicaid, and health costs. It also looks at the public's views of the main health provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), including on Medicare drug prices.
This analysis uses the 2022 American Community Survey to provide an overview of demographic characteristics, wages, and health insurance coverage of direct care workers, which include home health aides, personal care aides, nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and registered nurses (RNs).
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