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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.
This edition highlights vaccine hesitancy and misinformation around MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines as children return to school and measles cases resurge in parts of the U.S. It also examines emerging narratives around COVID-19 vaccine misinformation following the FDA approval of COVID-19 boosters and false claims linking mpox to the vaccines.
Concerns about youth mental health and access to care continues to increase. Schools can be an easy access point for behavioral health services and Medicaid provides significant financing for the delivery of these services in schools. In this analysis, we explore the strategies state Medicaid programs are taking to promote and improve access to school-based behavioral health services, and how recent policies call on Medicaid to expand access to care for youth, particularly in schools.
Amid controversies around the COVID-19 vaccine and growing distrust of public health authorities, more than four in ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, and a third of parents, now say they oppose requiring children in public schools to receive some childhood vaccines, up since 2019, a new KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor survey finds.
This Vaccine Monitor survey finds that almost three in ten adults now say that parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their school-age children for measles and other childhood illness, up since 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explores uptake of the new bivalent booster, and why many vaccinated adults have not gotten it.
The COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented health and education challenges for children with disabilities, many of whom receive special education services. Many children receiving special education services have substantial health care needs, and services available through a child’s health insurance plan, such as Medicaid, can complement special education services. This brief explains how Medicaid and special education services intersect, explores the pandemic’s implications for children receiving special education services, and identifies key issues to watch moving forward.
Firearms were responsible for 20 percent of all child and teen deaths in the U.S. for both 2020 and 2021, compared to an average of less than 2 percent in similarly large and wealthy nations. This puts the U.S. far ahead of peer nations in child and teen firearm deaths.
While climate change poses health threats for everyone, people of color, low-income people, and other marginalized or high-need groups face disproportionate risks due to underlying inequities and structural racism and discrimination.
This brief provides new data from the 2020 KFF Women's Health Survey on how workplace benefits and caring for children’s health care needs differ by gender and among different subpopulations of women.
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.
The 22nd annual survey of state Medicaid and CHIP programs officials conducted by KFF and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in May 2024 presents a snapshot of actions states have taken to improve systems, processes, and communications during the unwinding, as well as key state Medicaid eligibility, enrollment, and renewals policies and procedures in place as of May 2024. The report focuses on policies for children, pregnant individuals, parents, and other non-elderly adults whose eligibility is based on Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) financial eligibility rules.
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