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.
Exposure to lead can seriously harm a child’s health, including damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems, and hearing and speech problems. The effects of lead on the nervous system can cause lower IQ, decreased ability to pay attention, and under performance in school.
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.
While climate change effects ripple across the world and all populations, it is poised to disproportionately affect people of color, low-income communities, immigrants, and other high-need groups. Many of these groups have historically been exposed to climate hazards due to government policies and discriminatory practices that leave them more vulnerable to adverse climate events like record-breaking heat, wildfires, coastal flooding, and the spread of infectious diseases. A new KFF brief looks at key questions about…
This policy watch describes recent trends in children’s COVID-19 and routine vaccinations and explores strategies to increase vaccination rates among children as we head into the winter season.
As states expand COVID-19 vaccination efforts to reach newly eligible children ages 5 to 11, a new KFF analysis highlights several tools state Medicaid programs have at their disposal to increase access to, and take up of, vaccines among lower-income children. Among the key findings: States can request Medicaid administrative federal matching funds for state-funded monetary incentives to encourage uptake of the vaccine. In recent months, several states reported activities and incentives within contracted Medicaid…
This report updates parents' intentions for vaccinating their children, against COVID-19, as well as their views and concerns about vaccine safety, whether their schools encourage vaccination, and how the pandemic has affected their children, mental health, and ability to afford necessities.
Recent policy actions and proposals in Medicaid have renewed focus on the problem of churn, or temporary loss of coverage in which enrollees disenroll and then re-enroll within a short period of time. We find that 10% of full-benefit enrollees have a gap in coverage of less than a year, and rates are higher for children and adults compared to aged and people with disabilities. Churn has implications for access to care as well as…
This report examines the views and experiences of people in rural, urban and suburban areas related to the pandemic, and finds they hold very different views of the COVID-19 vaccines, particularly when it comes to children.
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.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the public is split on their readiness to return to normal, with many worried about the consequences of lifting restrictions and of not lifting them. At this point, the pandemic is not a top issue for voters in November's midterm elections . Most parents are not confident in the safety of the vaccine for kids under 5.
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