Racial Equity and Health Policy

the Essentials
  • How Experiencing Racial Discrimination Impacts Health

    This brief highlights research examining mechanisms underlying health outcomes linked to self-reported experiences of racial discrimination, including biological changes, chronic stress, mental health, substance use, pregnancy-related outcomes, and sleep.
  • Timeline: How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

    This timeline offers a historical view of significant U.S. federal policies and events spanning the early 1800s to today that have influenced present-day health disparities.
  • Health Policy 101: Chapter on Race, Inequality and Health

    Addressing persistent racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care is important for improving the nation’s health and economic prosperity. KFF explains such disparities and the factors that drive them, examines the actions to address them, and outlines future considerations.
  • Key Data on Health and Health Care by Race and Ethnicity

    Racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care remain a persistent challenge in the United States. An updated KFF resource examines how people of color fare compared to White people across 64 measures of health, health care, and social determinants of health.

Survey of Immigrants

KFF-New York Times Survey: Immigrants Report Rising Fear, Negative Economic and Health Impacts, and Changing Political Views During the First Year of President Trump’s Second Term

The 2025 Survey of Immigrants, a partnership between KFF and The New York Times, takes an in-depth look at the experiences of immigrants during the first year of President Trump’s second term, including their worries related to increased immigration enforcement, their health and economic wellbeing, and the political views and preferences of immigrant voters. The survey paints a portrait of families under strain — where fear of detention and economic instability are negatively impacting immigrants’ health and reshaping immigrant families’ daily lives and views of U.S. political parties.

Read the News Release | Explore The New York Times’ Reporting

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  • Health Policy 101 Introduction

    Feature

    Health Policy 101 is a comprehensive guide covering fundamental aspects of U.S. health policy and programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, employer-sponsored insurance, the uninsured population, health care costs and affordability, women's health issues, and health care politics. It includes overviews of private health insurance regulation, racial and ethnic disparities, public health, international comparison of health systems, U.S. global health policy, and the federal role in health policy. The chapters can be downloaded…

  • What Role Do Immigrants Play in the Hospital Workforce?

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief analyzes the role that immigrants play in the hospital workforce, overall and by occupation and state. Immigrants account for about one in six hospital workers, including among clinical and nonclinical workers.

  • A Fall Update on COVID-19 Cases and Deaths, Vaccinations, and Treatments by Race/Ethnicity

    News Release

    KFF has updated its national analysis of race/ethnicity data of COVID-19 cases and deaths, vaccinations, and treatments as concerns grow over a potential increase in COVID-19 cases during winter and upcoming holiday gatherings and the low take-up of the COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine among the eligible public. Despite earlier progress narrowing disparities in COVID-19 vaccination, new disparities have emerged in take-up of boosters and treatment. Federal data from earlier this month indicates that, among the…

  • Are Health Centers Facilitating Equitable Access to COVID-19 Vaccinations? A June 2021 Update.

    Issue Brief

    This analysis updates earlier work and examines the extent to which vaccination efforts through community health centers are reaching people of color using data from the federal government’s weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey. We include data from the survey weeks of January 8 through May 21, 2021, finding that people of color made up the majority of people who received vaccinations at community health centers.

  • Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity, 2010-2024

    Issue Brief

    In 2024, the overall uninsured rate increased for the first time since 2019 as pandemic-era continuous enrollment in Medicaid came to an end, with significant increases among Hispanic, Black, and White people under age 65. These coverage losses were largely driven by the expiration of policies to stabilize and expand access to affordable coverage that were implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Addressing Racial Equity in Vaccine Distribution

    Issue Brief

    This brief provides an overview of barriers to vaccination that disproportionately affect people of color and discusses how current national recommendations and state vaccine allocation plans address racial equity.