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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.
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In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman presents his Venn diagram of health care cost problems and shows how, in our fragmented health system, reducing one health cost problem often makes another worse.
This brief describes current state fiscal conditions as states begin fiscal year 2027 budget debates and highlights key areas to watch for Medicaid policy changes as states respond to fiscal challenges and the 2025 reconciliation law.
This policy watch evaluates state awards through the rural health fund in 2026, the first year of the program. The analysis shows relatively modest variations in total awards this year across states but wide variation in how much states will receive per rural resident.
This issue brief uses data from KFF’s 2025-2026 survey of Medicaid directors to describe states’ current provider taxes, explore how the 2025 reconciliation law changed the federal rules governing provider taxes, and summarize potential impacts of the changes across states.
Using data from the 23rd KFF survey of officials administering Medicaid home care programs, this issue brief describes the mechanisms states are currently using to limit Medicaid spending on home care and their plans for adopting new mechanisms in state fiscal year (FY) 2026.
This data note provides new information about waiting lists in Medicaid home care before many of the provisions in the 2025 reconciliation law go into effect. The data come from KFF's 23rd survey of officials administering Medicaid home care programs in all 50 states and DC.
This brief analyzes Medicaid enrollment and spending trends for FY 2025 and FY 2026, based on data provided by state Medicaid directors as part of the 25th annual survey of Medicaid directors.
As states completed the “unwinding” of pandemic-era continuous coverage, Medicaid enrollment fell 7.6% in FY 2025 and is expected to be largely flat in FY 2026. At the same time, total Medicaid spending grew by 8.6% in FY 2025 and is expected to grow by 7.9% in FY 2026.
This report highlights key policy priorities and issues state Medicaid programs focused on in FY 2025 and are prioritizing in FY 2026.
This brief provides estimates of how $37.5 billion of the $50 billion rural health fund could be distributed across states if all states are approved for funding. Awards from the $37.5 billion could range from an estimated $550 million (in Rhode Island) to just over $1 billion (in Texas) over five years if all states were approved for funding. These differences are relatively modest compared to the wide variation across states in rural health needs.
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