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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.
State Health Facts is a project of KFF and provides free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States. It offers data on health insurance status for the population overall and broken down by age, gender, and income. There are also data on specific types of coverage, including employer-sponsored, Medicaid, Medicare, as well as people who are uninsured by demographic characteristics, including age, race/ethnicity, work status, gender, and income. View the Indicators
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman looks back at the remarkable progress made in expanding coverage for the uninsured and what it could mean politically for today’s remaining uninsured—a population that has had little clout historically and will command even less attention now.
This Health Policy 101 chapter provides an overview of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a major reform of the U.S. health care system aimed at reducing high uninsured rates and alleviating issues like high out-of-pocket costs and coverage exclusions for preexisting conditions. The ACA significantly altered many aspects of the health system and the chapter explores its mechanisms, such as the Health Insurance Marketplaces, and the evolution of the law since its passage in 2010.
A growing number of states have added Medicaid coverage of non-traditional pregnancy-related care and services in recent years, such as doula services, lactation services, and home visiting programs, to promote better maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce racial/ethnic health disparities. This brief explores state strategies and challenges in promoting access to these services.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicaid, the primary U.S. program providing comprehensive coverage of health care and long-term services and supports to nearly 90 million low-income people. Originating in 1965 and expanding with the Affordable Care Act, the chapter reviews Medicaid's evolution and its joint federal and state financing and administration. It discusses how state-level flexibility in managing Medicaid leads to variation in coverage, spending, health care delivery, and access across different states.
This brief analyzes the different types of coverage that people with Medicare have and the demographic characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries with these different coverage types.
Some states are prioritizing Medicaid renewals for enrollees flagged as likely to be ineligible. Early data from Arizona, Idaho, and Pennsylvania show disenrollment rates for flagged enrollees are higher than for other enrollees. This analysis considers why different state approaches to renewals may explain some – but not all – variation in disenrollment rates across the U.S.
State Medicaid unwinding data show procedural disenrollment rates are high across most states. This policy watch provides insights for interpreting the data and describes steps the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and states are taking to reduce procedural disenrollments.
This analysis looks at how many people are signed up for each type of individual ACA Marketplace coverage—both on- and off-Marketplace and with or without subsidies—as of early 2023 based on federal enrollment data and administrative data insurers report to state regulators, as compiled by Mark Farrah Associates. The number of people enrolled in compliant and non-compliant plans was also evaluated.
As Opill—the first over-the-counter daily oral contraceptive pill in the United States—is expected to be available for purchase in early 2024, new research conducted by KFF examines barriers to its accessibility for consumers and challenges in providing insurance coverage for it.
This brief discusses state uptake of special waivers aimed to mitigate procedural disenrollments during the unwinding of the continuous enrollment provision.
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