Medicaid

Work Requirements

Challenges with Implementing Work Requirements

Many states are anticipating a variety of implementation challenges, including the need for complex system changes, a compressed implementation timeline, and limited staff capacity.

What is the Medicaid Hardship Exception?

The number of Medicaid expansion enrollees who ultimately qualify for the high unemployment hardship exception will depend on how the exception is implemented and how unemployment rates changes.

Tracking Implementation of the 2025 Reconciliation Law: Medicaid Work Requirements

KFF’s interactive tracks key data and policies that will affect how states implement Medicaid work requirements, which are required under the 2025 budget reconciliation law starting in January 2027. The tracker includes state-level data on Medicaid enrollment and renewal outcomes as well as current state enrollment and renewal policies.

2025-2026 Medicaid Budget Survey

2025 Medicaid Home Care survey

Payment Rates Ahead of 2025 Reconciliation Law

This issue brief describes Medicaid payment rates for home care and other workforce supports that are in place in 2025, before the majority of the 2025 reconciliation law provisions start taking effect.

Home Care Support for Family Caregivers in 2025
number of responding states, including DC, that allow payments for family caregivers by type of home care program and type of caregiver.

This issue brief describes the availability of self-directed services and supports for family caregivers in Medicaid home care in 2025, before most provisions in the reconciliation law take effect.

States’ Management of Home Care Spending

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.

Waiting Lists for Medicaid Home Care, 2016 to 2025
A Look at Waiting Lists for Medicaid Home- and Community-Based Services from 2016 to 2025

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.

Eligibility and coverage
  • Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies

    KFF's survey findings capture state actions that seek to improve the accuracy and efficiency of Medicaid and CHIP enrollment and renewal processes, as of January 2025.
  • Seniors and People with Disabilities

    More than 1 in 3 people with disabilities (15 million) have Medicaid (35%). In comparison, only 19% of people without disabilities have Medicaid.
  • Children with Special Needs

    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.
  • People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

    Among the estimated 8 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), over three million have Medicaid coverage.
  • Adults with Chronic Conditions

    Among working age adults enrolled in Medicaid, approximately three quarters have one or more chronic conditions, and nearly one-third have three or more.

The Essentials
  • 5 Facts: Immigrants and Medicaid

    This brief provides five key facts on Medicaid and immigrants as context for understanding the potential impacts of policy changes under the Trump administration.
  • 5 Facts: Medicaid and Hospitals

    This brief explains the role of Medicaid for hospitals, including how much spending on hospital care comes from Medicaid, the share of births covered by the program, and how Medicaid expansion has impacted hospital finances.
  • Medicaid Financing: The Basics

    Medicaid is a major source of financing for states to provide health coverage and long-term services and supports for low-income residents. This brief examines key questions about Medicaid financing and how it works.
  • 5 Facts: Medicaid’s Share of National Health Spending

    This brief explores how Medicaid spending contributes to national health spending and how different service areas contribute to Medicaid costs.
  • 5 Facts: Medicaid and Nursing Facilities

    The substantial Medicaid savings in the reconciliation bill could have major implications for nearly 15,000 federally certified nursing facilities and the 1.2 million people living in them.

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  • Overview of Medicaid Per Capita Cap Proposals

    Issue Brief

    The House Republican Plan (“A Better Way”) released on June 22, 2016, includes a proposal to convert federal Medicaid financing from an open-ended entitlement to a per capita allotment or a block grant (based on a state choice). This proposal is part of a larger package designed to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and reduce federal spending for health care. Often tied to deficit reduction, proposals to convert Medicaid’s financing structure to a per capita cap or block grant have been proposed before. Such changes represent a fundamental change in the financing structure of the program with major implications for beneficiaries, providers, states and localities. Key things to understand about a per capita cap include the following: how a per capita cap works, key design challenges, and implications of a per capita cap.

  • Trends in State Medicaid Programs: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

    Issue Brief

    For 15 years, KCMU and HMA have conducted annual surveys of Medicaid programs across the country. The NAMD has formally collaborated on this project since 2014. This brief provides a look back at the enrollment and spending trends as well as the multitude of policy actions taken by states across key areas: eligibility and application processes; provider rates and taxes; benefits, pharmacy and long-term care since as well as highlighting more recent data on managed care and delivery system reforms collected as part of this annual survey. Looking ahead, the survey will continue to capture the evolution of the Medicaid program with a focus program changes during economic cycles as well as innovations in payment and delivery system reform.

  • A Comprehensive Review of Research Finds That the ACA Medicaid Expansion Has Reduced the Uninsured Rate and Increased Access to Care in Expansion States

    News Release

    Multiple studies find that the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion has increased coverage, with enrollment exceeding expectations in some states, while producing budget savings for states and reductions in uncompensated care costs for hospitals, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation review of 61 studies and policy reports.

  • 8 Preguntas & Respuestas sobre Puerto Rico

    Fact Sheet

    La crisis de $73 mil millones de Puerto Rico ha sido tema de los medios de comunicación nacionales, y de debate en el Congreso en los últimos meses.

  • ACA Coverage Expansions and Low-Income Workers

    Issue Brief

    This brief highlights low-income workers and the impact of ACA coverage expansions on this population. Low-income workers may not have access to jobs that provide full-time, full-year employment or jobs with comprehensive benefit packages, including health insurance. Medicaid plays an important role in providing health coverage for low-income workers, and coverage expansions implemented under the ACA have produced substantial coverage gains for low-income workers and a corresponding reduction in the uninsured. However, low-income workers in non-expansion states with incomes too high for Medicaid but too low for subsidies in the Marketplace do not have an affordable coverage option and will likely remain uninsured.

  • CMS’s Final Rule on Medicaid Managed Care: A Summary of Major Provisions

    Issue Brief

    On April 21, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final regulations that revise and significantly strengthen existing Medicaid managed care rules. In keeping with states’ increasingly heavy reliance on managed care programs to deliver services to Medicaid beneficiaries, including many with complex care needs, the regulatory framework and new requirements established by the final rule reflect increased federal expectations regarding fundamental aspects of states’ Medicaid managed care programs.

  • Uncompensated Hospital Care Fell by $6 Billion Nationally in 2014, Primarily in Medicaid Expansion States; However Many Hospitals Worry About Future Changes in Medicaid Supplemental Payments

    News Release

    The Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions have benefited hospitals financially, helping to produce an overall decline nationwide in uncompensated care from $34.9 billion to $28.9 billion in 2014, according to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Nearly all of the decline occurred in Medicaid expansion states, where uncompensated care costs were $10.

  • Understanding Medicaid Hospital Payments and the Impact of Recent Policy Changes

    Issue Brief

    Medicaid payments to hospitals, which include base and supplemental payments, play an important role in hospital finances and can affect beneficiaries’ access to care.This brief provides an overview of Medicaid payments for hospitals and explores the implications of the ACA Medicaid expansion, including changes in uncompensated care, as well as payment policy changes on hospital finances.