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.
The brief provides a quick explainer of the prescription drug provisions in legislative text released by the Senate Finance Committee to be included in a forthcoming reconciliation bill and presents new estimates on how many Medicare beneficiaries could be helped by those provisions.
The health care costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth average almost $19,000, including $2,854 paid out-of-pocket, a new KFF analysis of large employers’ insurance claims finds.
This analysis examines the health costs associated with pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum care, and infancy. It finds that health costs associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and post-partum care average a total of $20,416, including $2,743 in out-of-pocket expenses, for women enrolled in employer plans.
KFF’s Kaiser Health News (KHN) and NPR today launched a yearlong investigative project that explores the scale, impact, and causes of the health care debt crisis in the United States.
The KFF Health Care Debt Survey finds that four in ten adults have some form of health care debt, with most citing one-time or short-term medical expenses as the contributor. Many of those with health care debt report making personal sacrifices and enduring financial consequences as a result of their debt, while nearly one in five think they will never be able to pay off.
These FAQs review mental health and substance use disorder coverage and cost sharing in Medicare and discuss recent policy changes related to coverage of mental health and substance use disorder treatments.
Medicare premiums and cost sharing will account for an increasing share of Social Security benefits in the future, Medicare Trustees project.
Medicare beneficiaries with low incomes and modest assets can qualify for additional financial help with Medicare premiums and cost sharing through both the Medicare Savings Programs and Medicare’s Part D Low-Income Subsidy for prescription drug coverage.
This data note provides an overview of programs that help beneficiaries with modest incomes with their Medicare costs, including the Medicare Savings Programs and the Part D Low-Income Subsidy, and highlights findings from corresponding state-level profiles of eligibility and enrollment.
This brief provides an overview of the major health-related COVID-19 federal emergency declarations that have been made since early on in the pandemic, summarizes the flexibilities triggered by each, and identifies the implications for their ending, related to coverage, costs, and payment for COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines; Medicaid coverage and federal match rates; telehealth; access to medical countermeasures through FDA emergency use authorization (EUA); and other Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance flexibilities.
© 2025 KFF