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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.
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How these new workforce reductions at the Social Security Administration will affect people is unknown but could make it harder for people to get connected to benefits they might qualify for…which would in turn affect access to health insurance coverage through Medicare and Medicaid.
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.
This brief considers options under consideration to cut Medicaid spending by $2.3 trillion over ten years and their potential impact on people with disabilities. Policy changes such as per capita caps, reduced federal funding for the ACA expansion, and Medicaid work requirements could require states to limit coverage, reduce benefits, or cut provider payments. Given their higher health care costs and reliance on Medicaid for essential services, people with disabilities could be especially affected.
Nearly 1 in 4 Medicaid enrollees are eligible for the program because they are ages 65 and older or have a disability, and they have higher per-enrollee costs than other enrollees. Proposals to limit federal spending on Medicaid may create incentives for states to drop or reduce their eligibility or coverage for seniors and people with disabilities in response to fewer federal revenues. Considering the proposed reductions in Medicaid spending, this issue brief describes Medicaid eligibility pathways, enrollment, and spending among people eligible through the age and disability-related pathways.
This issue brief provides new information about family caregivers from KFF’s most recent survey of state Medicaid HCBS programs, including a discussion of paying family caregivers, self-direction, and supports available for family caregivers.
This data note examines the characteristics of nursing facilities and the people living in them with data from Nursing Home Compare, a publicly available dataset that provides a snapshot of information on quality of care in each nursing facility, and CASPER (Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports), a dataset that includes detailed metrics collected by surveyors during nursing facility inspections.
This data note provides new information about waiting lists for Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services, including a discussion of why waiting lists are an incomplete measure of unmet need and why they are not necessarily comparable across states or over time.
This issue brief presents findings from the focus groups including caregiver characteristics; physical, emotional, and mental caregiving demands of caregiving; their wages, finances, and opportunities for advancement; and what caregivers would like policymakers to know about their work.
This analysis examines who was eligible for Medicare and/or Medicaid between 2002 and 2022 because they received disability benefits from one of the country's Social Security disability programs, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Many who receive SSDI and SSI qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, known as dual-eligible individuals.
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