Medicaid

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Medicaid work requirements

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

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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.

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  • A 50-State Review of Access to State Medicaid Program Information for People with Limited English Proficiency and/or Disabilities Ahead of the PHE Unwinding

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief reviews accessibility of information for people with LEP and people with disabilities provided through state Medicaid websites and call center automated phone trees as of June 16, 2022. The analysis shows that while states have taken some steps to support access to information and applications for people with LEP and people with disabilities, gaps in accessibility remain.

  • Mental Health Parity at a Crossroads

    News Release

    With federal agencies preparing to update parity regulations and Congress considering reforms, our new report explains existing parity requirements, including who they apply to and how their enforced, and highlights key policy issues raised by regulators and advocates that could be addressed in the future. Those issues include: Simplifying parity standards to make it easier for apples-to-apples comparisons between behavior health and medical benefits needed to assess compliance. Taking a closer look at how insurers are…

  • Mental Health Parity at a Crossroads

    Issue Brief

    This brief discusses federal mental health parity protections -- what they are, who they apply to, who enforces them and key policy issues as Congress and federal agencies evaluate improvements to the law to address gaps in mental health coverage and access.

  • Headed Back to School: A Look at the Ongoing Effects of COVID-19 on Children’s Health and Well-Being

    Issue Brief

    Emerging COVID-19 variants, like the Omicron subvariant BA.5 that has recently caused a surge in cases, may pose new risks to children and create challenges for the back-to-school season. Children may also continue to face challenges due to the ongoing health, economic, and social consequences of the pandemic. This brief examines how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect children’s physical and mental health, considers what the findings mean for the upcoming back-to-school season, and explores…

  • A Look at the Economic Effects of the Pandemic for Children

    Issue Brief

    Federal policymakers have taken several actions to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic on families and children by providing state fiscal relief, increased nutrition assistance, Medicaid funding, and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); however, some of this assistance has or will expire. This brief examines hardship across three metrics—difficulty paying for normal household expenses, food sufficiency, and uncertainty in paying for rent or mortgage payments for households with…

  • Medicaid’s New Option to Extend Postpartum Coverage for 12 Months Could Prevent Hundreds of Thousands of Enrollees from Losing Coverage in the Months After Delivery

    News Release

    A new KFF analysis finds that hundreds of thousands of people are disenrolled from Medicaid each year after giving birth, which could be prevented if all states were to take up a new option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months. The estimate – based on analysis of Medicaid claims data from 2018 – finds that 610,000 postpartum women were disenrolled within a year of giving birth, accounting for about 40 percent of the…