Public Health


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.

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  • Dec. 3 Web Briefing: What Happens Once There is a COVID-19 Vaccine? Key Challenges to Vaccinating America

    Event Date:
    Event

    Encouraging reports about several COVID-19 vaccine candidates is raising hopes that there will soon be one or more vaccines proven safe and effective, starting a race to produce, distribute, and administer it to essential workers, people at high risk, and the public, including those who may start out with skepticism about the risks posed by COVID-19 and the safety and necessity of vaccination. KFF held an interactive web briefing on Thursday, December 3 to walk…

  • COVID-19 Has Claimed the Lives of 100,000 Long-Term Care Residents and Staff

    Policy Watch

    More than 100,000 residents and staff have died in long-term care facilities since the start of the pandemic. This post discusses the implications of the likely rise in cases due to holiday gatherings and the share of total COVID-19 deaths that have happened in long-term care facilities.

  • What Do State Plans Reveal About Their Readiness to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines? 

    News Release

    With hopes that a COVID-19 vaccine or vaccines will be proven safe and effective soon, state and local public health authorities will play a critical role in ensuring the efficient distribution and administration of the vaccine. To assess the readiness of these local governments to take on these responsibilities, KFF reviewed the preliminary vaccine distribution plans submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month by the states and the District of…

  • Vaccine Coverage, Pricing, and Reimbursement in the U.S.

    Issue Brief

    The brief provides an overview of how vaccines are reimbursed and covered across government programs and different types of health insurance in the United States. It coverage regulations specific to COVID-19 vaccine(s).

  • States Are Getting Ready to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines. What Do Their Plans Tell Us So Far?

    Issue Brief

    This brief summarizes the information contained in the all available draft COVID-19 vaccination plans submitted by states to the CDC, focusing in particular in critical areas such as identifying critical/priority populations, identifying and recruiting providers to administer vaccines, the completeness of state-level vaccine data collection and reporting systems, and communication plans. States report widely varying levels of progress.

  • KHN and Associated Press Investigation of Inadequate U.S. Public Health Infrastructure During the Pandemic Wins Top Journalism Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science

    News Release

    The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded KFF’s Kaiser Health News and The Associated Press one of its top journalism prizes for a joint investigation that revealed the diminished state of the U.S. public health infrastructure in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAAS gave the news organizations its Gold Award in science reporting for “Hollowed-Out Public Health System Faces More Cuts Amid Virus,” an investigation that found that the…

  • Wide Variations in Flu Vaccination Rates Across States Highlight Challenges as State and Local Authorities Plan to Distribute a COVID-19 Vaccine

    News Release

    When a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, all or most people living in the country will need to get vaccinated in order to maximize its benefits and provide adequate immunity nationwide. That could present a daunting challenge for state and local health officials, as a new KFF analysis shows vaccination rates for the annual flu vaccine vary widely across states as well as by race and ethnicity, age, and other demographic characteristics. The flu vaccine provides…

  • Distributing a COVID-19 Vaccine Across the U.S. – A Look at Key Issues

    News Release

    Government officials hope to identify one or more safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines over the next few months as part of a multi-agency effort known as Operation Warp Speed. If and when they succeed, their focus will shift to making sure people across the country can access the vaccine. A new issue brief lays out some of the key challenges with such a massive vaccination effort, which could require hundreds of millions of vaccine doses…

  • Poll: Most Americans Say President Trump is Intervening with the FDA’s and CDC’s Coronavirus Work, But Trust the Agencies at Least a Fair Amount to Do the Right Thing

    News Release

    As COVID-19 cases rise across much of the country, most Americans think that the president is intervening with the public health agencies working to address the pandemic, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. Similar majorities say both that President Trump is intervening with the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to review and approve a coronavirus vaccine (55%) and that he is in intervening with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts to issue coronavirus guidelines…