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Racial Equity and Health Policy

Racism, Discrimination and Health

Proposed Changes in the Census Could Impact Efforts to Address Health Disparities

The proposed changes would effectively prohibit the counting of many noncitizen immigrants, including undocumented immigrants and some lawfully present immigrants, and ban the inclusion of questions on race and ethnicity from the decennial census.

Also: HHS’s Elimination of Disparate Impact to Determine Discrimination: Potential Implications for Health and Health Care

Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity, 2010-2024

The Growing Use of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care and Implications for Disparities

KFF Survey on Racism, Discrimination and Health: Views on Racism and Trust in Key U.S. Institutions

Overview of Health Coverage and Care for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency

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.
Interactive Timeline

How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: A Timeline of Policies and Events

This interactive timeline explores how history has shaped racial and ethnic health disparities and the lasting effects that persist to this day.

The timeline describes major U.S. federal policies and events since the early 1800s that are linked to present-day health disparities. It also covers policies that impact health coverage and access to care, medicine, and social and economic policies that influence health as well as efforts to tackle inequalities.

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

Immigrants

Many Lawfully Present Immigrants Will Lose Health Coverage Due to the 2025 Tax and Budget Law

This policy watch outlines the groups of lawfully present immigrants that will lose access to federally funded health coverage due to new restrictions on eligibility in the 2025 tax and budget law.
It also highlights the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimates of the number of lawfully present immigrants who will become uninsured due to the provisions, as well as estimated federal savings that will result.
CBO estimates that the law’s restrictions on eligibility will result in 1.4 million lawfully present immigrants becoming uninsured and reduce federal spending by $131 billion by 2034.

Related: Key Facts on Health Coverage of Immigrants

Recent State Actions Related to Immigrants’ Access to Services and Immigration Enforcement

Health Issues for Immigrants in Detention Centers

Policy Bars Many Immigrants from a Broad Range of Federal Health and Social Supports

Role of Immigrants in the Hospital Workforce

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  • Los Latinos y el VIH/SIDA

    Fact Sheet

    Latinos and HIV/AIDS (Spanish version) This fact sheet provides an overview of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States as it has affected Latinos, including information on the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on the Latino community and a current case profile. It is available in English and Spanish. Fact Sheet:

  • Mobilizing to Fight HIV/AIDS in the African American Community

    Other Post

    This supplement to the journal Minority Health Today includes a set of papers commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and the Kaiser Family Foundation for a national forum on HIV/AIDS. Included within the journal are articles on the impact of the epidemic on African American community, focusing specifically on the epidemiology of the disease, patterns of access to and utilization of HIV/AIDS treatment, and the financing of HIV/AIDS care. The journal…

  • Health Policy Challenges Affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives

    Other Post

    CALL FOR PAPERS: Health Policy Challenges Affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), in collaboration with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, is planning to publish a collection of papers on how the United States can more effectively meet the health care needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs). The guest editors are soliciting contributions to the “Health Policy and Ethics” and “Research and Practice” sections of the…

  • Pulling It Together: A Recovery Raises Expectations Too

    Perspective

    New Orleans is a city still struggling with the aftermath of Katrina and the levee breaks. The people of New Orleans feel that the nation and the federal government have largely forgotten them. Those are the results of our 2008 survey of the people of New Orleans, the second in a series we are doing to track progress in the recovery from the perspective of the residents of the city themselves. As the head of a…

  • HIV/AIDS in Georgia

    Report

    Two reports - "Survey of Georgia Residents on HIV/AIDS" and "Georgia's Minority Health and Health Disparities Report - Facing a Crisis" - show the disproportionate impact HIV is having on minorities in Georgia, and important differences in how minorities view HIV/AIDS compared to whites. The reports were released at a November 30, 2004 briefing held by the National Center for Primary Care (NCPC) at the Morehouse School of Medicine in partnership with the Kaiser Family…

  • Native American Health Policy Fellowship Program, 1999 – 2003

    Other Post

    Established in 1999, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Native American Health Policy Fellowships were awarded to outstanding American Indian/Alaska Natives who made their career in health-related fields and were interested in health policy. The purpose of the fellowship was to give American Indian/Alaska Native community leaders an opportunity to learn more about national health policy issues and the policymaking process. Fellows were given the opportunity to work full-time for one year in a Congressional…

  • May 20 Web Event: Latinos and the Nation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

    Event Date:
    Event

    New Campaign from THE CONVERSATION / LA CONVERSACIÓN to Address Information Needs in the Community KFF and UnidosUS presented an interactive web event on Thursday, May 20th on the latest insights on what is working and what barriers must be overcome in ensuring equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccines for Latinos in the U.S., including new KFF survey findings from the community. KFF analysis of state-reported data shows Hispanic and Black people have received smaller…

  • Unwinding of the PHE: Maintaining Medicaid for People with Limited English Proficiency

    Issue Brief

    Provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) require states to maintain continuous Medicaid enrollment for enrollees until the end of the month when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends. When the continuous enrollment requirements end and states resume redeterminations and disenrollments, individuals with LEP may be at increased risk of losing Medicaid coverage or experiencing a gap in coverage due to barriers completing these processes, even if they remain eligible for coverage.