This post examines a growing COVID-19 vaccine gap in Red and Blue America, with the share of the population that have been fully vaccinated in counties that voted for President Biden in 2020 increasing more rapidly than the share in counties that voted for President Trump.

California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is the largest state Medicaid program in the nation, insuring almost one-third of Californians. For several decades, Medi-Cal has been transitioning from a fee-for-service (FFS) system to risk-based managed care, and more than three-quarters of all Medi-Cal beneficiaries, including low-income children, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities, are now enrolled in managed care plans. As other state Medicaid programs increase their reliance on risk-based managed care, a review of California’s transition is both timely and illustrative. This issue brief provides an overview of the evolution of Medi-Cal managed care, key issues, and lessons for managed care programs in other states.

This brief highlights estimates from the Urban Institute’s ACS-HIPSM on the magnitude and composition of Medicaid enrollees and the uninsured after full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the Medicaid expansion. Both state and local level estimates highlight the geographic variation.

While to date big cities and major urban areas have seen the greatest number of coronavirus cases and deaths, this analysis finds the growth rate is now higher in rural areas.

This issue brief builds on a previous CDC analysis by analyzing how vaccination rates to date vary by counties and identifying key county characteristics that are associated with higher or lower county vaccination rates.

A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 147 counties lack Medicare Advantage plans – many more than the 19 counties expected to lack an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace insurer next year. Yet Medicare Advantage, the private plans that cover a third of all Medicare beneficiaries, is…

While to date big cities and major urban areas have seen the greatest number of coronavirus cases and deaths, a new KFF analysis finds the growth rate is now higher in rural areas, where the population tends to be older, younger people are more likely to have high-risk health conditions,…

This analysis uses CDC data to look at vaccination rates for adults 65 and older. The findings show that vaccination rates vary by county and that adults ages 65 and older are less likely to be fully vaccinated in counties in the South, in counties where a higher share of older adults live in poverty, and in counties that voted for Trump.