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The future of the Affordable Care Act, once a key issue for Republican voters, is now of higher importance to Democratic voters. This KFF Health Tracking Poll also explores other important issues for candidates to discuss according to voters, Medicaid unwinding, Medicare drug-price provisions, and abortion as a voting issue.
When the federal government ends COVID-19 emergency declarations that were declared in the early days of the pandemic, it will bring to a close several changes that were enacted temporarily to enable the U.S. health care system to better deal with the crisis. A new KFF resource details a number of those flexibilities and lays out what it will mean for people, providers and federal health programs when they go away. One of the key…
With the pandemic taking a heavy toll among older Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and most states have placed a high priority on vaccinating residents and staff of long-term care facilities. People in nursing homes and other long-term care settings account for 6 percent of cases but 38 percent of deaths from COVID-19, a share that has remained largely consistent throughout the pandemic, according to KFF’s updated analysis. KFF held an interactive…
This is an updated analysis of COVID-19 cases and deaths by race/ethnicity that incorporates more recent data and age-adjusted incidence and mortality rates.
As federal, state, and local authorities move to roll back COVID-19 restrictions, a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey finds many people ready to get back to normal but a public also nervous about the potential consequences. Large shares of the public are worried about the implications of both keeping and easing pandemic restrictions – with partisans split on which direction worries them the most. Overall, majorities say they worry about the potential consequences of…
Of the 19 million U.S. children under 5, half are children of color, making this group more diverse than the U.S. population overall. There is also significant variation across the country.
With the Medicare open enrollment period set to begin Oct. 15, a perennial decision faced by Medicare beneficiaries is whether to get their coverage through traditional Medicare or the private plans known as Medicare Advantage. A new KFF review of 62 studies published since 2016 that compares Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare on measures of beneficiary experience, affordability, utilization, and quality finds few differences that are supported by strong evidence or have been replicated across…
The surge in COVID-19 cases triggered by the omicron variant led to widespread work disruptions, with about 4 in 10 workers (42%) – including 6 in 10 of those with lower incomes – saying they had to miss work at least once in the past three months because of a COVID-19 illness, quarantine, or closure, a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report shows. Among all workers, a quarter (26%) say they missed work because they…
Large majorities of the public hold favorable views of Medicare and Medicaid. While most people worry about Medicare’s sustainability for the future, they also view the debate in Washington about Medicare cuts as largely politics.
After steep gains since 2020, state Medicaid agencies expect Medicaid enrollment to begin to decline in FY 2023, following the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), which most states assumed would occur during FY 2023, according to KFF’s new state Medicaid budget survey. Projections of declining enrollment tied to the end of the federal continuous enrollment requirement are also expected to translate into slower total Medicaid spending growth in FY 2023. At the…
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