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.
The Medicare Part D program provides an outpatient prescription drug benefit to older adults and people with long-term disabilities in Medicare who enroll in private plans. This analysis provides the latest data about Medicare Part D coverage and costs in 2019 and trends over time, including enrollment, premiums, cost sharing, and participation in the low-income subsidy program.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation brief and interactive map provide the latest national and state-level estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau of the share and number of people ages 65 and older who are living in poverty. The resources examine poverty among seniors under the official poverty threshold ($11,756 in income for an individual age 65 or older in 2017), and under an alternative measure of poverty known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure. That measure,…
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.
As of September 2023, nine states are reporting data that allow for analysis of disenrollment patterns by race and ethnicity. Five states (Arizona, California, Indiana, Minnesota, and Oregon) provide data on disenrollment rates by race and ethnicity. Four states (Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington) report the distribution of disenrollments by race and ethnicity that can be compared to the distribution of overall Medicaid enrollment in each state by race and ethnicity.
Immigrants living along the Texas Gulf Coast were more likely than their U.S.-born neighbors to suffer employment and income losses as a result of Hurricane Harvey (64% vs. 39%), a new Kaiser Family Foundation/Episcopal Health Foundation analysis finds. The analysis examines differences between immigrants and U.S.-born families based on a fall KFF/EHF survey of residents in 24 Texas counties hit hard by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. Other findings include: Immigrants were more likely to…
With rising concern over increases in prescription drug costs, the Trump Administration has proposed what it calls a “5-part plan” that would change several features of the Medicare Part D drug benefit. This brief describes the Administration’s five Part D proposals and discusses the potential implications for people with Part D prescription drug coverage and Medicare program spending, based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
More than 100 million Americans have no insurance to help cover dental needs. With health reform discussions ongoing, the Foundation's Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) cosponsored a briefing which examined oral health in the broader conversation of improving quality and expanding access. Three new reports from KCMU were released at the event. Access to Affordable Dental Care: Gaps for Low-Income Adults Filling an Urgent Need: Improving Children’s Access to Dental Care in…
The Kaiser Family Foundation maintains a number of primers providing overviews of key health care programs and issues. Written by Foundation staff, each primer provides key data and information that helps illustrate the topic and its relevance for the nation's health care system. Medicaid: A Primer Medicare: A Primer The Uninsured: A Primer Health Care Costs: A Primer How Private Health Coverage Works: A Primer Mental Health Financing in the United States: A Primer The…
Overall, more than one-third of the states (19 states) took steps last year to increase access to health coverage for low-income children, pregnant women and parents –- including 15 states that authorized or implemented coverage expansions. At the same time, 10 states enacted at least one measure to restrict access. The report also examines trends in parental coverage and state outreach efforts, including the use of technology to facilitate enrollment. Full Report (.pdf) Data Tables…
This brief, the first in a series, examines the new federal "performance bonus" available to states that do an especially good job of signing up eligible children for Medicaid. The bonus, created by a provision in the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009, is designed to help states cover the added costs that result when states are very successful in enrolling eligible children in Medicaid above target levels specified in the law. It…
© 2026 KFF