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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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At the start of 2025, many issues are at play that will affect Medicaid coverage, financing, and access to care. While Medicaid was not discussed much on the campaign trail, Congress may consider big changes as part of tax and spending debates and the Trump administration may make changes to Medicaid through executive actions. Amid the potential changes, this brief highlights ten key things to know about Medicaid.
This brief examines the final CMS regulations governing prior authorization in Medicare Advantage, Marketplace, Medicaid, and other plans, how they might address some current consumer concerns, and some issues that remain.
As policymakers and regulators pay more attention to consolidation in health care provider markets, this brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation, including recent trends, the impact on prices and quality, and proposals to address consolidation and increase competition.
KFF's survey examines adults who had Medicaid coverage in early 2023, just before states resumed eligibility checks and disenrollments after pandemic-era protections ended. Nearly a quarter (23%) of adults who say they were disenrolled from Medicaid since early 2023 report being uninsured now. Overall, 19% of adults who had Medicaid prior to the start of unwinding say they were disenrolled at some point in the past year.
This issue brief examines well-child visit rates overall and for selected characteristics before and after the pandemic began and discusses recent state and federal policy changes that could impact children’s preventive care. More than half of children under age 21 enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP received a well-child visit in 2019, but the share fell to 48% in 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This report summarizes the major findings from KFF and HMA case studies in five U.S. communities, highlighting cross-cutting themes and the degree to which low-income women in diverse communities face challenges in accessing reproductive and sexual health care, as well as promising initiatives established by community providers to address barriers and improve access to these basic services.
This brief provides an overview of changes in coverage of telehealth under traditional Medicare before the coronavirus pandemic, and estimates changes in use of telehealth services using survey data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) during the pandemic. The analysis also discusses issues and questions related to extending telehealth coverage under traditional Medicare beyond the public health emergency.
More than a year into the public health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the lives of Americans including those living in the U.S. territories. Differences in Medicaid financing, including a statutory cap and match rate, have contributed to broader fiscal and health systems challenges for the territories. While additional federal funds have been provided over the statutory caps, these funds are set to expire at the end of September 2021. Without additional Congressional action, the territories will lose the vast majority of Medicaid financing which could result in reductions in coverage, services, and provider rates which could negatively impact the territories as they deal with the long-term health and economic consequences of the pandemic. This brief looks at how the pandemic is affecting the territories as well as issues related to the upcoming Medicaid fiscal cliff.
Providing paid time off to employees to get and recover from any side effects could help boost vaccination rates. Overall, nearly three in ten (28%) employed adults who not yet ready to get the vaccine say that they would be more likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine if their employer gave them paid time off to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects.
Disparities in health and health care for people of color and underserved groups are longstanding challenges. This brief provides an introduction to what health and health care disparities are, why it is important to address disparities, the status of disparities today, recent federal actions to address disparities, and key issues related to addressing disparities looking ahead.
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