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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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In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman reviews an evaluation of a “guaranteed income” (GI) randomized trial in Cambridge, MA and writes about the potential of GI strategies to reduce poverty and its effects. When it comes to influencing the social determinants of health, he argues, “income strategies” deployed outside of health care, such as GI, deserve as much attention from health care people as “service strategies.”
This brief examines the income, assets, and home equity of Medicare beneficiaries, overall and by age, race and ethnicity, and gender. Most Medicare beneficiaries live on relatively low incomes and have modest financial resources to draw upon if they need costly care or long-term services and supports.
To document the affordability challenges posed by out-of-pocket health care costs for people with Medicare, this brief analyzes out-of-pocket health care costs as a share of Social Security income and total income, including other sources of income in addition to Social Security.
This brief provides an overview of the financial assistance provided under the ACA for people purchasing coverage on their own through health insurance Marketplaces (also called exchanges).
KFF’s Survey of Medicaid Financial Eligibility for Older Adults & People with Disabilities, conducted in March 2025 by KFF and Watts Health Policy Consulting, provides a baseline of Medicaid eligibility as states return to normal operations after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and ahead of potential changes to the Medicaid program.
Some higher-income Medicare beneficiaries will have to pay more in Part B and Part D premiums starting in 2018, due to a provision in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, a recently passed law to change how Medicare pays physicians. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that, as a result of the provision, Part B premiums are expected to rise from $238 per month to $310 per month for Medicare beneficiaries with…
KFF’s Survey of Medicaid Financial Eligibility for Older Adults & People with Disabilities, conducted in March 2026 by KFF and Watts Health Policy Consulting, provides a baseline of Medicaid eligibility ahead of potential changes to the Medicaid program stemming from the 2025 reconciliation law.
This brief presents key facts and analysis about affordability of health care costs among people with Medicare, including younger adults with long-term disabilities, drawing on data from various sources.
In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why seniors need to be included in the national discussion on income inequality, especially as proposals to change Medicare and Social Security are considered. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available.
A small share of the 52.4 million elderly individuals and people with disabilities on Medicare have relatively high incomes, but most are of modest means -- with half living on incomes of less than $23,500 last year. Although the majority of beneficiaries have some savings, the value of their assets varies dramatically, and is much lower for black and Hispanic than white beneficiaries, for widows than for widowers, and for younger Medicare beneficiaries with disabilities…
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