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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.
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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.”
While majorities tend to support expanding Medicaid in non-expansion states and keeping Medicaid funding as is, differences arise in comparing the opinions of Medicaid enrollees and the general public.
On September 21, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule that is intended to help low-income Medicare beneficiaries gain access to Medicaid coverage of Medicare premiums and often, cost sharing, through the Medicare Savings Programs.
New poverty data show the supplemental poverty rate for children remains more than double what it was in 2021.
This report examines the ongoing challenges and experiences of people who have been previously incarcerated. Results from KFF's Racism, Discrimination, and Health survey show that adults with prior incarceration have significant health needs, are socially isolated, and have limited access to health care.
This analysis estimates that 1.4 million uninsured individuals in the ten states without Medicaid expansion, including many working adults, people of color, and those with disabilities, remain in the "coverage gap," ineligible for Medicaid or for tax credits that would make coverage through the Affordable Care Act's Marketplaces affordable to them.
Nationwide, an estimated 52 million nonelderly adults live with mental illness, and Medicaid covers nearly one in three (29%) of them, or about 15 million adults. More than 1 in 3 Medicaid enrollees has a mental illness. Mental health treatment rates for Medicaid adults are higher than or similar to those with insurance.
As Congress works to pass the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which includes significant changes to Medicaid and the ACA, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll examines the views of groups that could be most directly impacted by the impending legislation. The poll finds most of the public is worried about the consequences of federal funding reductions to Medicaid, including rural residents, those with lower incomes, and across partisans.
Medicare provides significant health and financial protections to more than 60 million Americans, but there are gaps in coverage and high cost-sharing requirements that can make health care difficult to afford. This report analyzes several policy options that could help make health care more affordable for people covered by Medicare, especially beneficiaries with relatively low incomes: adding an out-of-pocket limit to traditional Medicare, adding a hard out-of-pocket cap to Part D, expanding financial assistance through the Medicare Savings Programs, and expanding financial assistance through the Part D low-income subsidy program.
Disparities in health and health care for people of color and underserved groups are longstanding challenges. This brief provides an introduction to what health and health care disparities are, why it is important to address disparities, the status of disparities today, recent federal actions to address disparities, and key issues related to addressing disparities looking ahead.
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