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.
As the start of 2024, many issues are at play that will affect Medicaid coverage, financing, and access. This issue brief provides context for these Medicaid issues and highlights key issues to watch in the year ahead.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. While there are limits, states can use Medicaid – which, by design, serves a primarily low-income population with greater social needs – to address social determinants of health. This brief outlines the range of Medicaid authorities and flexibilities that can be used to add benefits and design programs to address the social determinants of health.
This timeline offers a historical view of significant U.S. federal policies and events spanning the early 1800s to today that have influenced present-day health disparities. It covers policies that directly impacted health coverage and access to care, relevant events in medicine, social and economic policies and developments that influence health, and efforts to tackle inequalities.
KFF’s new interactive timeline explores how history has shaped racial and ethnic health disparities and the lasting effects that persist to this day. The timeline describes major U.S. federal policies and events since the early 1800s that are linked to present-day health disparities.
Like other immigrants to the U.S., Asian immigrants overwhelmingly say they emigrated for the opportunity to build a better life for themselves and their children.
In September 2023, the National Institutes of Health designated people with disabilities as a population experiencing health disparities, which will help ensure that people with disabilities are represented in research funded by the National Institutes. Also in September of 2023, the Biden Administration proposed a new rule that would update the requirements for nondiscrimination on the basis of disability. Among other changes, the proposed rule would codify the Olmstead court decision, which requires people with disabilities to be served in the most integrated setting that is appropriate. The new designation and proposed rule may reflect, in part, an increased awareness of the challenges and health disparities faced by people with disabilities, many of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
In this analysis, KFF examines the characteristics of people with disabilities who are living in the community from the American Community Survey.
As the 25th anniversary of Olmstead nears, more than one-in-10 working age adults have a disability and most do not receive public disability income. Over one-in-10 working-age adults reported having a disability in 2022.
Asian immigrants represent an important significant and growing share of the U.S. population, as well as a diverse body of experiences. Increased data on Asian immigrant experiences is important for understanding their diversity of experiences and focusing initiatives, policies, and resources to address the challenges they face.
This analysis provides an overview of American Indian and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander people and their health coverage as well as the implications for their access to health care.
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.
© 2026 KFF