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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.
Health Policy 101 is a comprehensive guide covering fundamental aspects of U.S. health policy and programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, employer-sponsored insurance, the uninsured population, health care costs and affordability, women's health issues, and health care politics. The Public Health chapter examines how public health is governed and delivered in the United States. It includes explanations of key public health frameworks, services, capabilities and characteristics, how the public health system works in state, local and territorial governments, and public health funding, workforce, and communication challenges in an era of declining trust.
In the midst of a sweeping national health and economic crisis sparked by the novel coronavirus pandemic, a new KFF coronavirus poll finds two thirds of the public (67%) say they are taking precautions as a result, and large shares worry about its impact on their family’s health and finances.
New federal legislation will require most private health plans to cover testing for the coronavirus with no cost sharing. Some states have adopted similar requirements for insurers they regulate, and many private insurance companies will voluntarily expand coverage for testing. However, some private coverage will not be subject to these requirements. To date, fewer changes have been adopted or considered with respect to treatment for complications from the disease. This brief reviews current coverage standards for private health plans and how these may change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on current understanding of risk, forty-one percent of adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. have a higher risk of developing more serious illness if they become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, because they are older or have serious underlying health conditions, or both, according to a new KFF analysis.
As the COVID-19 pandemic grows, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other public health officials recommend that people who are sick should stay home. Benefits such as sick leave and family leave can help employees follow these guidelines; however, the U.S. does not have national standards on paid family or sick leave. The lack of a national policy means some employees are forced to take unpaid leave, or come to work when they are ill, which could have public health consequences.
On March 18, 2020, KFF held a reporters-only web briefing with its key policy and public opinion experts to discuss the nation’s rapidly changing public and policy responses to contain the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic across the country and the world.
This brief describes a range of steps states and the federal government could take to use Medicaid to expand coverage and access to care in the context of responding to COVID-19 as a public health crisis.
Fielded from March 11-15, this KFF Coronavirus poll provides a snapshot of the public’s experience, knowledge and views about the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, during the rapidly unfolding crisis. A majority of Americans say they are taking precautions to protect themselves by the novel coronavirus pandemic but the public worries about the health and economic consequences as the situation evolves in the coming months.
The Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020, which was passed with near unanimous support in both the House and Senate, was signed into law by the President on March 6, 2020. The bill provides $8.3 billion in emergency funding for federal agencies to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. This summary provides details on funding specified in the bill.
While donors have begun providing support to China and other low- and middle-income countries, there is currently no other centralized repository for this information. This tracker provides an accounting of publicly available information on donor funding to date.
This data note provides an accounting of publicly-available information on donor funding to date for the global coronavirus (COVID-19) response.
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