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.
Asset Transfer and Nursing Home Use: Empirical Evidence and Policy Significance Due to concern that wealthy elderly Americans were transferring assets to gain Medicaid coverage for nursing home care, the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 tightened Medicaid eligibility rules related to asset transfers.
Long Term Care Download a printable .pdf of Health Care and the 2004 Elections: Long Term Care. IssueBackgroundOptions for Addressing Long Term Care NeedsAssessing Candidate Positions Issue Millions of elderly and disabled Americans need long-term care services and supports.
This Background Paper presents information on the disabled population, as well as alternative definitions of disability and the resulting impact on population estimates of the disabled population.
This case study looks at Michigan's Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration program, which has enabled the state to accelerate existing transition activities and increase access to home- and community-based services (HCBS) by providing enhanced federal funds for each MFP participant’s 365-day enrollment period.
This case study looks at Washington state's Money Follows the Person demonstration program, Roads to Community Living. The program is responsible for assisting over 2,400 Medicaid beneficiaries with complex long-term services and supports (LTSS) needs in transitioning out of institutions back to community-based care settings.
Long-Term Care Spending In 1993, Medicaid spent $25.5 billion for long-term care services for elderly beneficiaries (Figure 5). This represents 58 percent of the $44 billion Medicaid spent on long-term care services for all population groups. The majority of spending was for care delivered in nursing facilities (84 percent) and ICFs-MR (2 percent).
This policy brief describes the resources, staffing, and performance of state licensing and certification agencies based on findings from a survey of state survey agency officials.
In his Axios column, Drew Altman discusses new data on the surge of new infections in long-term care facilities in COVID-19 hotspots. The dominant narrative about the Sunbelt surge in new cases is that the infected population is younger, but he says that’s not the whole story.
This analysis provides new national and state-level estimates of the number of health care workers and long-term care residents who are expected to be part of the group first in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to gain insight into how this initial priority population varies across states.
This analysis presents the most current data on out-of-pocket health care spending by Medicare beneficiaries, both overall and among different groups of beneficiaries. The analysis explores how much Medicare beneficiaries spend out of pocket in total on health care premiums and health-related services, on average; how much beneficiaries spend out of pocket on different types of health-related services; and what share of income beneficiaries spend on out-of-pocket health care costs.
© 2026 KFF