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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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This brief examines key characteristics of part-time workers and their access to coverage. Part-time workers are much less likely than full time ones to be offered health benefits by their employer or to have health coverage at all.
Medicare Part D is a voluntary outpatient prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare provided through private plans, including stand-alone prescription drug plans and Medicare Advantage plans that offer drug coverage. This analysis provides an overview of Medicare Part D plan availability, premiums, and cost sharing in 2025 and key trends over time.
This Health Policy 101 chapter examines the share of the United States population who are uninsured, highlighting their demographics and the challenges they face because of the lack of coverage. Economic conditions, federal and state policy decisions, and major health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic influence the uninsured rate. While implementation of the Affordable Care Act, namely the expansion of Medicaid and availability of subsidized Marketplace coverage, led to a drop in the share of people who are uninsured, disparities in coverage persist and policy changes in the 2025 budget reconciliation bill are expected to increase the size of the population.
While climate change poses health threats for everyone, people of color, low-income people, and other marginalized or high-need groups face disproportionate risks due to underlying inequities and structural racism and discrimination.
The surge in COVID-19 cases triggered by the omicron variant led to widespread work disruptions, with about 4 in 10 workers (42%) – including 6 in 10 of those with lower incomes – saying they had to miss work at least once in the past three months because of a COVID-19 illness, quarantine, or closure,…
This brief provides an overview of the Medicaid Incentives for the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (MIPCD) grants and highlights key findings from the interim evaluation of the program. The brief also places these grants in context of pre-Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid beneficiary incentive programs and proposed programs of states that are incorporating healthy behavior incentives into Medicaid expansion waivers.
Medicaid is the nation’s main public health insurance program for people with low incomes, and it is the single largest source of health coverage in the U.S., covering nearly 70 million Americans. Medicaid also finances 16% of total personal health spending in the nation. States design and administer their own Medicaid programs within federal requirements, and states and the federal government finance the program jointly. As a major payer, Medicaid is a core source of financing for safety-net hospitals and health centers that serve low-income communities, including many of the uninsured. It is also the main source of coverage and financing for both nursing home and community-based long-term care.
The latest Chart of the Week provides a look at the socioeconomic breakdown of the uninsured population in California, sourced from KFF's State Health Facts database.
This brief examines the oral health status of low-income adults, the dental benefits covered by state Medicaid programs, and low-income adults’ access to dental care today.
Three years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the March 2013 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that a majority of Americans are unsure how the law will impact them, and few are paying attention to the details of state-level decisions about implementation.
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