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.
Federal vaccine policy has shifted toward fewer recommended routine childhood vaccinations, more emphasis on individual decision-making, and greater skepticism about the safety and efficacy of some vaccines. The changes coincide with declining childhood vaccination rates, rising exemptions from school vaccine requirements, and a major measles resurgence.
This brief reports on rural and urban health center patients and financing in 2025 using national data from the Uniform Data System (UDS) and examines potential impacts of recent federal policy changes.
This issue brief provides an update on the latest trends in kindergarten children's routine vaccination and exemption rates. Over three-quarters of states had measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccination rates below the “target” rate of 95% for the 2025-2026 school year.
States and local governments, rather than the federal government, have authority over school vaccination requirements, and while all 50 states and DC require certain vaccines for school attendance, they vary substantially in how exemptions are granted and administered. As the Trump administration has moved away from longstanding federal childhood vaccine recommendations, an increasing number of states are delinking their vaccine policies from CDC/ACIP guidance, while recent state policy changes have generally made non-medical exemptions easier…
This brief provides an overview of health coverage of noncitizen children to provide greater insight into the potential role of Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act (ICHIA) coverage in limiting the 2025 reconciliation law's impact on coverage for lawfully present immigrant children.
Fact sheet examining actions taken by the Trump administration and their impact on Gavi.
This data note reviews trends in homelessness and characteristics of people who are homeless using data from HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness.
Most adults (56%) say they have “little” to “no confidence” in federal health agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make recommendations about childhood vaccine schedules.
This analysis estimates that 1.2 million uninsured individuals in the ten states without Medicaid expansion, including many working adults, people of color, and those with disabilities, remain in the "coverage gap," ineligible for Medicaid or for tax credits that would make coverage affordable through the Affordable Care Act's Marketplaces.
This brief provides an overview of the relationship between racial discrimination and health and highlights research examining mechanisms underlying health outcomes linked to experiences of racial discrimination, including biological changes, chronic stress, mental health, substance use, pregnancy-related outcomes, and sleep.
© 2026 KFF