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.
This brief offers an overview of the new multilateral global health financing mechanism known as the Pandemic Fund, which is housed at the World Bank. The brief reviews the evolution of the Fund, its current financial status and donors, U.S. engagement, and policy issues going forward.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores the performance of the U.S. health system on a number of cost, outcomes, and quality measures by comparing it with those in similarly large and wealthy OECD nations. It highlights that despite significant spending, Americans have shorter life expectancies and encounter more barriers to health care, influenced by both the health system's structure and broader socioeconomic factors.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicare, a federal health insurance program covering more than 68 million people, established in 1965 for people age 65 or older and later expanded to cover people under age 65 with long-term disabilities. In addition to detailing Medicare eligibility, coverage, and spending, the chapter examines the increased role of private plans in providing benefits and the financing challenges posed by increasing health care costs and an aging population.
The U.S territories – American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) – have faced longstanding fiscal and health challenges exacerbated by recent emergencies. This issue brief provides background on how Medicaid financing differs between U.S. territories and states and what these differences mean for funding as well as health care coverage and access.
Medicaid financing is complex. This policy watch explains how Medicaid financing works, describes various conservative proposals to change Medicaid financing, and explores the implications of those changes for states and enrollees.
This report highlights certain policies in place in state Medicaid programs in FY 2024 and policy changes implemented or planned for FY 2025, which began on July 1, 2024 for most states.
We review several policy options to constrain health care spending, primarily by putting downward pressure on provider prices, including price regulation, global budgets, and spending growth targets.
Under the reconciliation package, federal Medicaid spending in rural areas is estimated to decline by $137 billion, more than the $50 billion appropriated for the rural health fund.
This brief provides an overview of the FY26 budget request for domestic HIV and compares it to funding levels in the FY25 continuing resolution.
On May 30, 2025, the administration released additional details of its Fiscal Year 2026 budget request, including more specific information on funding for global health activities at the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
© 2025 KFF