Medicaid Watch

Amid debates about proposed cuts to federal Medicaid spending, this brief analyzes key characteristics of children with special health care needs and explores how Medicaid provides them with coverage.

This brief describes federal citizenship and immigration status eligibility and eligibility verification requirements for Medicaid. Eligibility for federally-funded coverage under Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program is limited to U.S. citizens and certain lawfully present immigrants.

This brief explores data about rural hospitals’ financial health and stability at a time when Congress is considering potential federal budget cuts. It examines the prevalence of rural hospitals, their characteristics and finances, federal support for these facilities, and the potential impact of reductions in Medicaid and Medicare spending that are under consideration.

In his latest column, president and CEO Drew Altman discusses why debate about extending the ACA enhanced tax credits set to expire this year has been slow to develop, and why it could matter to Republicans politically if the tax credits are not extended.

Section 1115 Medicaid waivers can allow states to test new approaches in Medicaid that differ from what is required by federal law. This page tracks approved and pending waiver provisions (including expansions and restrictions) related to eligibility, benefits, and social determinants of health and other delivery system reforms.

As Congress considers ways to help pay for extending tax cuts, some lawmakers have suggested that hundreds of billions of dollars in federal savings could be achieved by addressing fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicaid program. They often cite data about improper payments in Medicaid, which accounted for 5.1…

Nearly three in four adults enrolled in Medicaid have one or more chronic conditions. Medicaid spending doubles for adults with 1-2 chronic conditions and quadruples for those with 3 or more chronic conditions. Low or no out-of-pocket costs for prescription medications in the Medicaid program help adults with chronic conditions avoid cost-related rationing or delays in prescription access. Uninsured adults were 2.5 times more likely than Medicaid-enrolled or privately insured adults to report skipping or delaying prescription medications due to cost.

To increase understanding of how shifting immigration policies may affect the direct care workforce providing long-term care services, this data note uses the 2023 American Community Survey (ACS) to provide an overview of the role that immigrants play in the direct care workforce for long-term care (LTC) services

In this brief, we describe Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Medicaid policies underlying it, and potential implications for Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to reproductive health services.

As Congress weighs potential cuts in federal Medicaid spending through budget reconciliation, one option under consideration is to limit the use of state taxes on providers. This brief uses data from KFF’s 2024-2025 survey of Medicaid directors to describe states’ current provider taxes and the federal rules governing them.