The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
On Dec. 5, KFF Health News hosted a virtual conversation about “Dying Broke,” our joint investigation with The New York Times into America’s long-term care crisis and what can be done to mitigate its growing financial and emotional toll.
In his Beyond the Data column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman discusses how how family health coverage is no longer affordable for workers at small employers, contributing to the health cost crisis affecting the American people.
Amid low unemployment and rising demand for services, today’s health care workforce is under pressure from several directions, including worker strikes; shortages of trained staff; and proposed new staffing standards for nurses and aides in nursing facilities. On November 16, a panel of three experts joined Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, for a 45-minute discussion focused on the diverse challenges facing the health care workforce.
KFF Health News won the 2023 Loeb Award in the personal finance and consumer reporting category for its in-depth coverage of consumer medical debt in its “Diagnosis: Debt” series. In partnership with NPR and CBS News, KFF Health News examined the stories behind the more than 100 million people in America who have been pushed into debt by the nation’s health care system, revealing the epidemic of medical debt that has become a defining feature…
The recently released KFF/Washington Post Trans Survey is the most in-depth, representative survey of transgender adults living in the U.S. Building on that report, and using the survey data, this analysis provides the most comprehensive representative profile of trans Americans ever complied, while also offering insights on their experiences in the health care system.
Drawing on KFF’s Misinformation Pilot Poll, KFF today released three follow-up reports examining exposure to, and belief in, health misinformation among Black adults, Hispanic adults, and rural communities. As with the general public, large shares within each group are uncertain about whether each of 10 false health claims are true or not, describing them as either “probably true” or “probably false.” This uncertainty leaves people vulnerable to misinformation but also provides an opportunity to combat…
Watch an online conversation led by Céline Gounder, a physician-epidemiologist and the host of “Eradicating Smallpox,” Season 2 of the “Epidemic” podcast. The docuseries explores the parallels between the campaign to end a centuries-old disease and the challenges public health faces today.
In the midst of an opioid epidemic in the United States, two-thirds of adults say either they or a family member have been impacted by drug or alcohol addiction. Three in ten say they or their family were addicted to prescription or illegal opioids. This survey explores treatments received by those who battled addiction, impacts of addiction, and support for policies aimed at reducing drug overdoses.
A new KFF poll assessing the broad reach of the nation’s opioids crisis on families across the United States reveals that three-in-ten adults (29%) say they or someone in their family have ever been addicted to opioids, including prescription painkillers and illegal drugs like heroin. Rural residents (42%) and White adults (33%) are among the groups hardest hit. The poll also showed that the opioid crisis is part of a much larger picture of addiction…
KFF Health News today launched a new limited-series podcast, "Epidemic: Eradicating Smallpox," with host Dr. Céline Gounder, senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News. The eight-episode podcast takes listeners on a journey to South Asia, the site of the last days of variola major smallpox. There, public health workers from India, Bangladesh, and around the world did what many thought was impossible: eradicate smallpox. "Eradicating smallpox was one of humanity’s greatest…
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