Medicaid

What to Watch

Medicaid: What to Watch in 2026

Medicaid: What to Watch in 2026

In this brief, KFF explores how state fiscal pressures are likely to converge with the implementation of the 2025 reconciliation law to affect Medicaid coverage, financing, and access to care over the next year, especially leading up to the midterm elections.

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 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.

Subscribe to KFF Emails

Choose which emails are best for you.
Sign up here

Filter

2,511 - 2,520 of 2,680 Results

  • Public Health in a Changing Health Care System: Linkages Between Public Health and MCOs In the Treatment and Prevention of STDs

    Report

    Public health agencies and managed care organizations share responsibility for the health of the populations they serve. Their relationships are particularly important in the area of STDs. This study analyzes the evolving relationships between managed care organizations and public health agencies in how they manage the prevention, treatment, and tracking of STDs.

  • Medicaid-Related Provisions in the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999

    Report

    In December, the President signed into law the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, which includes provisions that will give states additional options for extending Medicaid coverage to working disabled individuals. This memo presents an overview of the eligibility options offered under the new legislation (Publication #2187).

  • The Olmstead Decision: Implications for Medicaid

    Issue Brief

    In June, 1999, the Supreme Court rule in Olmstead v L.C. that states were required to provide services to persons with disabilities in community settings rather than institutions, if certain conditions were met. This Policy Brief provides an overview of the Olmstead case, including the facts, the court ruling, and the disposition of the case.

  • Join the Debate: Health Issues in the 2000 Election

    Other Post

    Developed as part of a nonpartisan public education initiative of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the League of Women Voters Education Fund, this guide provides basic facts about five key health policy topics candidates are discussing in the 2000 election.

  • Access to Care for Low-Income Women: The Impact of Medicaid

    Issue Brief

    Health coverage is of critical importance to low-income women. This study was undertaken to assess how low-income women with Medicaid, private insurance, or no insurance vary with regard to personal characteristics, health status, and health utilization.

  • Access to Care for Low-Income Women: The Impact of Medicaid

    Other Post

    Health coverage is of critical importance to low-income women. This study was undertaken to assess how low-income women with Medicaid, private insurance, or no insurance vary with regard to personal characteristics, health status, and health utilization.

  • Health Centers’ Role as Safety Net Providers for Medicaid Patients and the Uninsured

    Report

    This issue paper profiles the role America's health centers have played in providing care for Medicaid patients and the uninsured. The paper presents information on health center patients and revenue sources and analyzes similarities and differences both between health centers and private practices and among health centers.

  • Continued Slow Growth for Medicaid Spending in 1997

    Report

    This issue paper provides an overview of Medicaid spending in 1997. Beginning with a recap of spending and enrollment trends since the early 1990s, the authors report that Medicaid spending grew by 4.1 percent between 1996 and 1997, continuing the recent trend of slow spending growth.

  • Medicaid Managed Care’s Impact On Safety-Net Clinics In California

    Fact Sheet

    Medicaid Managed Care's Impact On Safety-Net Clinics In California Medicaid Managed Care's Impact On Safety-Net Clinics In California was published in the January/February 2000 issue of the journal Health Affairs. The report provides an overview of Medi-Cal Managed Care in California, and its effects on community health clinics, and related issues.