Medicaid

new and noteworthy

Medicaid work requirements

Medicaid and the Road Ahead: Spending Cuts, Work Requirements and What’s Next for States, Providers and Families

Event Date:

Passed last year, President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act made significant changes to Medicaid—the primary insurance provider for health and long-term care for people with low incomes. These changes are expected to lead to coverage loss for many current enrollees and will reduce funding for Medicaid, placing new financial pressures on states and health care providers. On July 23, KFF and States Newsroom hosted an event focused on the impacts of work requirements and other federal policy changes on states, health care systems, and people.

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.

Dual Eligibles

Stay informed.

Stay informed.

Filter

1,711 - 1,720 of 2,737 Results

  • Medicaid Financial Eligibility: Primary Pathways for the Elderly and People with Disabilities

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief details the various eligibility pathways by which individuals with disabilities and the elderly can qualify for Medicaid coverage. The program, which serves as a safety net for many of the nation’s poorest and sickest individuals, provides health coverage to nearly 60 million Americans, including 8.5 million with disabilities and 8.8 million low-income frail, elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries who rely on Medicaid to fill Medicare’s gaps.  Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Brenda Christiansen

    Other Post

    Brenda Christiansen, age 52, was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago. When she first noticed a worrisome lump, she was in the three-month waiting period for the health insurance offered through the nursing job she had recently taken. Within days of qualifying for this coverage, she was laid off. Uninsured and facing this diagnosis, Brenda was eligible to enroll in Utah Medicaid’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Program. This Medicaid program…

  • The News Media and “Entitlement Reform”

    From Drew Altman

    In the coming debate about the deficit, policymakers will struggle to craft a package of spending reductions and new revenues that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on, totaling as much as four trillion dollars over ten years.  Medicare, Medicaid and potentially the Affordable Care Act will have their turn on the operating table as policymakers look for savings.  It is unclear what reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending policymakers will be able to agree…

  • Importance Of Medicaid To Own Family Varies By Household Income

    Feature

    Importance Of Medicaid To Own Family Varies By Household Income Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress (conducted January 3-9, 2013)

  • Medicare and Medicaid Personally Important To Majority Of Public

    Feature

    Medicare and Medicaid Personally Important To Majority Of Public Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health, The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress (conducted January 3-9, 2013)

  • Putting Medicaid in the Larger Budget Context: An In-Depth Look at Four States in FY 2014 and 2015

    Issue Brief

    This report provides an in-depth examination of Medicaid program changes in the larger context of state budgets in four states: Michigan, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. These case studies build on findings from the 14th annual budget survey of Medicaid officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia conducted by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and Health Management Associates (HMA.)

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Understanding the Effect of Medicaid Expansion in the South

    News Release

    This Visualizing Health Policy infographic examines the effect of decisions by states in the South to implement or forgo the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion. It shows that Southerners are more likely than people living in other parts of the United States to be uninsured; that most Southern states have poverty rates above the national average; that without the Medicaid expansion (which most Southern states are not implementing), Medicaid eligibility levels for adults in the…

  • Key Themes in Capitated Medicaid Managed Long-Term Services and Supports Waivers

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief analyzes key themes in 19 capitated § 1115 and § 1915(b)/(c) Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) waivers approved to date by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with a focus on covered populations and services, provisions aimed at expanding beneficiary access to HCBS, beneficiary protections, and quality measurement and oversight.