Medicaid

Medicaid work requirements

Tracking the 2025 Reconciliation Law’s Medicaid Work Requirements: Data and Policies

To implement Medicaid work requirements, states will need to make important policy and operational decisions, implement needed system upgrades or changes, develop new outreach and education strategies, and hire and train staff, all within a relatively short timeframe. The information tracked here can serve as a resource to understand Medicaid work requirements and state options, gauge readiness, and track implementation of the requirements.

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understanding medicaid

Medicaid Financing

Medicaid represents $1 out of every $5 spent on health care in the U.S. and is the major source of financing for states to provide health coverage and long-term care. This brief examines key questions about Medicaid financing and how it works.

Medicaid Program Integrity

This brief explains what is known about improper payments and fraud and abuse in Medicaid and describes ongoing state and federal actions to address program integrity.

Medicaid and Provider Taxes

All states except Alaska cover some state Medicaid costs with taxes on health care providers. This brief uses data from KFF’s 2024-2025 survey of Medicaid directors to describe current practices and the federal rules governing them.

Medicaid and Hospitals

Absorbing reductions in Medicaid spending could be challenging for hospitals, particularly for those that are financially vulnerable. This brief provides data on the reach of Medicaid across hospitals, patients, and charity care.

Medicaid Home Care

This issue brief provides an overview of what Medicaid home care (also known as “home- and community-based services”) is, who is covered, and what services were available in 2025.

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  • Community Health Centers’ Experiences in a More Mature ACA Market

    Issue Brief

    Community health centers provide comprehensive primary care services in some of the most underserved communities in the nation. This brief summarizes findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy 2018 Health Center Survey to provide a snapshot of health centers’ outreach and enrollment activities as well as changes in service capacity, and overall financial condition since implementation of the ACA.

  • Does Employment Lead to Improved Health? New Research Review Finds Mixed Evidence with Caveats that Could Impact Applicability to Medicaid Work Requirements

    News Release

    With nearly a dozen states seeking or implementing waivers to add work requirements for some Medicaid beneficiaries, a central question is whether such policies promote health and therefore promote the goals of the Medicaid program. A new Kaiser Family Foundation report reviews research about the relationship between work and health and finds only limited evidence that employment improves health, with some studies showing a positive impact and others showing no relationship at all or only…

  • The Relationship Between Work and Health: Findings from a Literature Review

    Issue Brief

    A central question in the current debate over work requirements in Medicaid is whether such policies promote health and are therefore within the goals of the Medicaid program. This brief examines literature on the relationship between work and health and analyzes the implications of this research in the context of Medicaid work requirements.

  • The Role of Community Health Centers in Addressing the Opioid Epidemic

    Issue Brief

    This brief presents the results of the 2018 health center survey questions focused on activities releated to addressing the opioid epidemic. It includes information on opioid use disorder among health center patients, on-site provision of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and naloxone, provider training on providing MAT, treatment capacity issues, and safe prescribing practices. It also compares activities in Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states and discusses the critical role Medicaid plays in health centers’ ability to address…

  • Community Health Centers Have Seen an Increase in the Share of Patients with Opioid Addiction

    News Release

    A majority of community health centers have seen a rising number of patients with opioid addiction over the last three years, according to a new issue brief released by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Nearly seven in 10 (69%) health centers reported an increase in patients with an addiction to prescription opioids and a similar share (63%) reported an increase in patients with an addiction to nonprescription opioids such as heroin and fentanyl. The findings of…

  • What do different data sources tell us about Medicaid and work?

    Fact Sheet

    A central question in the ongoing debate about imposing work requirements in Medicaid is what current work patterns are among Medicaid adults and how many so-called “able bodied” adults are not already working. Answers to these questions rely on various data sources, and characteristics of the underlying data and analytic decisions may lead to different conclusions. This data note examines what different data sources and analytic decisions tell us about Medicaid and work.

  • Federal Legislation Related to Medicaid and Opioids: What to Watch

    News Release

    With President Trump having declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, both the House and Senate are advancing legislation to address the crisis. A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation summarizes current federal legislative proposals related to Medicaid’s role in the opioid epidemic and identifies issues to watch as final legislation takes shape. The House has passed several bills culminating in the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment…

  • Explaining Stewart v. Azar, the Federal District Court Decision Invalidating Kentucky’s Medicaid Waiver

    News Release

    A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation explains the June 29 federal court ruling invalidating the Kentucky HEALTH Medicaid waiver program and its implications for other states. The DC Federal District Court decision in Stewart v. Azar blocked Kentucky from implementing the waiver on July 1, including its work requirement, monthly premiums up to 4% of income, coverage lockouts for failure to timely renew eligibility or timely report a change in circumstances, and…

  • Explaining Stewart v. Azar: Implications of the Court’s Decision on Kentucky’s Medicaid Waiver

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief summarizes the DC federal district court's June 29, 2018 decision in Stewart v. Azar, the lawsuit brought by Medicaid enrollees challenging the HHS Secretary’s approval of the Kentucky HEALTH Section 1115 waiver program, which includes a work requirement, premiums, coverage lockouts, and other provisions that the state estimated would lead 95,000 people to lose coverage.