The recently passed House budget resolution targets cuts to Medicaid of up to $880 billion or more over a decade to help pay for tax cuts. Major cuts to Medicaid may impact coverage for the almost 1 in 5 Medicare beneficiaries (12.2 million) who are also enrolled in Medicaid ..read more

In this brief, we explore avenues for expanding hormonal contraceptive care and supplies through pharmacies, as well as how and where pharmacies and pharmacists may be positioned to fill gaps in contraceptive care where there are few brick-and-mortar family planning providers, as well as the challenges in expanding these pathways ..read more

According to the Washington Post, at least 390,000 students were exposed to a school shooting (exposure is defined as students attending a school at which a shooting occurred during the current school year) since the 1999 Columbine shooting. This brief analyzes the rate of student exposure to school shootings over time at the national and state level. Exposure rates depend on factors including school enrollment size and state population size. Therefore, even a single school shooting incident in a state can impact many youths beyond those that are physically injured and may significantly increa ..read more

On March 15, 2025, the President signed a full-year “continuing resolution” (CR) that continues funding the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year. It maintains U.S. global health funding at the prior year (FY 2024) level ($10.8 billion).[i] The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, which was passed by the House on…More ..read more

Program integrity efforts work to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse, to increase program transparency and accountability, and to recover improperly used funds. 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 ..read more

This issue brief provides information about some of the services Medicaid provides in assisted living facilities from KFF’s most recent survey of state Medicaid HCBS home care programs ..read more

The privatization of Medicare has been taking place without much public debate – a trend that has implications for the 68 million people covered by Medicare, health care providers, Medicare spending, and taxpayers. It's not yet clear whether the administration will promote policies to accelerate the privatization of Medicare or focus more on achieving efficiencies and savings within Medicare Advantage, or pursue policies that aim to achieve both. How this plays out will have implications for beneficiaries, health care providers and insurers, and is worthy of serious debate ..read more

As bird flu continues to circulate among animals in the U.S. with some human cases, about six in 10 (58%) people overall have at least “a fair amount” of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide reliable information about bird flu, though only 21% have a “great deal of trust,”…More ..read more

As bird flu continues to spread among animals in the U.S., KFF's Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that the public is more concerned about its impact on food prices than potential health impacts. Trust in the CDC to provide information on bird flu is also divided along partisan lines, and a large share of the public is uncertain about public health agencies' recommendations for preventing infection ..read more

In this JAMA Health Forum post, Executive Vice President Larry Levitt recalls the mid-1990s’ public backlash against Health Maintenance Organizations (commonly known as HMOs) – all of which preceded the recent outpouring of health insurance concerns – as well as how consumer protections against coverage restrictions have evolved and fallen short ..read more