Federal Budget

In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the implications of Secretary Kennedy’s reorganization of HHS and why it’s a sharp break from past efforts to reorganize the department.

This brief explains fraud, waste, abuse, and improper payments in Medicare and describes actions to ensure Medicare program integrity.

Provides ten key facts about the U.S. global health response, as it was before the Trump administration began.

In November 2024, CMS finalized a 2.83% decrease in the physician fee schedule conversion factor, a key aspect of payment rates under the Medicare program, resulting in a 2.93% decrease in overall payments to physicians and other clinicians. Congress has not yet enacted legislation to address this payment cut, which went into effect on January 1, 2025. This issue brief answers key questions about how physicians are paid under the Medicare program, and reviews policy options under discussion for payment reform.

In his latest Beyond the Data column, KFF’s President and CEO Drew Altman discusses how difficult it will be for states to replace lost federal Medicaid funding should Congress make significant cuts.

These global health budget summaries highlight key information about global health funding levels throughout the federal budget and appropriations process.

Program integrity efforts work to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse, to increase program transparency and accountability, and to recover improperly used funds. This brief explains what is known about improper payments and fraud and abuse in Medicaid and describes ongoing state and federal actions to address program integrity.

Amid discussion of changes to the Medicaid program, most of the public say that Medicaid is important to their local communities. About two in ten favor cuts to Medicaid spending. Support for Medicaid cuts remain low even among typically conservative groups such as Republicans, Trump voters, and those living in rural communities. The poll also gauges the impact of arguments for and against Medicaid work requirements and reductions to federal spending on ACA expansion.

As Congress considers changes to the Medicaid program as part of the budget debate, relatively few (17%) in the public say they want to see a reduction in Medicaid spending, with larger shares saying they want spending to stay about the same (40%) or increase (42%), a new KFF Health…

As the Trump administration works to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a new KFF poll finds that two-thirds (67%) of the public believe these actions will increase illness and death in low-income countries, and a similar majority (62%) believe it will result in more humanitarian crises around…