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.
Importance Of Medicaid To Own Family Varies By Household Income Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress (conducted January 3-9, 2013)
Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will expand Medicaid and create new health insurance exchanges that will significantly increase coverage options for citizens and lawfully present immigrants. This brief provides an overview of health coverage for immigrants today and their new coverage options under health reform. Fact Sheet (.pdf)
This Medicaid primer provides an overview of the nation's largest health coverage program, which covers more than 62 million low-income individuals, including children and families, people with disabilities and seniors who are also covered by Medicare. Medicaid also is the dominant source of the country’s long-term care financing. The program will expand significantly under the Affordable Care Act in 2014.
Medicaid, the nation’s public health insurance program for low-income people, now covers nearly 60 million Americans, including many working families, low-income elderly, and individuals with disabilities. Medicaid beneficiaries tend to be poorer and sicker than those enrolled in private insurance. Given these characteristics, federal law limits the extent to which states can charge premiums and cost-sharing, particularly for pregnant women, children and adults but allows flexibility for individuals with incomes above 100% of the federal…
Medicaid covers nearly 60 million Americans. Because the population covered by the program is low-income, federal law limits the extent to which states can charge premiums and cost-sharing amounts, particularly for pregnant women, children and adults with incomes below poverty. Yet there is renewed interest in the use of premiums and cost-sharing in Medicaid given the continued focus on cost-containment due to ongoing state budget pressures as well as recently proposed changes to federal regulations…
"Great Expectations and the Affordable Care Act," Larry Levitt's February 2013 post for The JAMA Forum, is now available online.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) seeks to fill the longstanding gap in Medicaid coverage for low-income adults by expanding eligibility to a minimum floor of 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL), or $24,344 for a family of 3 in 2012. However, the Supreme Court ruling on the ACA effectively made implementation of the Medicaid expansion a state choice. If a state does not expand Medicaid, poor uninsured adults in that state will not gain…
The March 2013 Visualizing Health Policy infographic looks at how expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act will impact low-income and uninsured people, and how these groups will be affected in states that do not expand the program. See the full-size infographic at The Journal of the American Medical Association View the related Slideshow Visualizing Health Policy is a monthly infographic series produced in partnership with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Each month’s infographic…
This brief reviews Medicaid's role in covering preventive care for women, presents findings of importance to women from the survey, and discusses the implications for women on Medicaid following the implementation of health reform.
A central goal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to significantly reduce the number of uninsured by providing a continuum of affordable coverage options through Medicaid and new Health Insurance Exchanges. Following the June 2012 Supreme Court decision, states face a decision about whether to adopt the Medicaid expansion. These decisions will have enormous consequences for health coverage for the low-income population. This analysis uses the Urban Institute’s Health Insurance Policy…
© 2026 KFF