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.
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.
The side-by-side comparison tool provides a quick overview of former President Trump's and Vice President Harris' records, positions, public statements, and proposed policies on a range of key health care topics.
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.
Oral health is key to overall health and well-being, and the use of dental services helps prevent and treat dental disease and improves oral health. The prevalence of unmet oral health needs is higher among people with low incomes, including those with Medicaid. This issue brief describes Medicaid dental coverage, examines the use of dental services for children and adults in Medicaid, and discusses current challenges and policy changes that impact access to oral health care for Medicaid enrollees.
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores Medicaid, the primary U.S. program providing comprehensive coverage of health care and long-term services and supports to nearly 90 million low-income people. Originating in 1965 and expanding with the Affordable Care Act, the chapter reviews Medicaid's evolution and its joint federal and state financing and administration. It discusses how state-level flexibility in managing Medicaid leads to variation in coverage, spending, health care delivery, and access across different states.
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.
To provide context for understanding the financial needs and well-being of older adults, this brief analyzes the latest data on poverty rates among the 58 million non-institutionalized adults ages 65 and older in the U.S overall, based on both the official poverty measure and the Supplemental Poverty Measure.
In his new column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman discusses the pros and cons of labeling socio-economic problems as health issues.
KFF Health News and Cox Media Group Television Stations announced today that they received the 2024 Goldsmith Awards’ inaugural Government Reporting Prize for their joint reporting in the series “Overpayment Outrage,” which exposed how the Social Security Administration routinely reduced or suspended monthly checks to take back funds to pay off large debts that were…
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