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Fact Checking

CCF experts fact-check statements about Medicaid, immigrant health coverage, vaccines and other health-related topics.

Featured

• Program Integrity
• Immigrant Health Coverage

H.R.1 Resource Hub

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the budget reconciliation bill into law (H.R. 1, or P.L. 119-21, previously titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”). The budget reconciliation law includes provisions related to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplaces. CCF researchers explain how federal and state policy decisions on H.R. 1 implementation impact health coverage for children and families.

Featured

• Medicaid
• CHIP
• Eligibility & Enrollment
• Work Reporting Requirements
• Program Integrity

Work Reporting Requirements

H.R.1 imposed a mandate on states to establish new work reporting requirements for adults covered through Medicaid expansion or similar coverage offered through a waiver. CCF researchers track federal guidance, state implementation, and impact on people enrolled in Medicaid coverage. Visit our state by state tracker on the Implementation of H.R. 1 Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements

Featured

• HR1 Resources
• Medicaid

Medicaid

Medicaid is the largest insurer for children in the U.S. and finances more than 40% of births. It has transformed health care for low-income children and families, pregnant women, people with disabilities and individuals with special health care needs. To learn more about Medicaid, see the content below and check out our Medicaid Learning Lab.

• Eligibility & Enrollment
• Expansion
• Program Integrity

Maternal & Early Childhood Health

Medicaid finances more than 40% of births and is the nation’s largest health insurer for children. Medicaid plays a critical role in helping babies get a good start in life and onto a path of healthy early childhood development. Longitudinal studies have increasingly linked Medicaid coverage for mothers and young children with improved health and lower rates of disability in adulthood.

• Children's Health Coverage
• Early Childhood
• EPSDT
• Waivers

Data Trackers

Follow state-by-state health coverage trends with CCF’s trackers.

• Medicaid
• HR1 Resources
• Eligibility & Enrollment

CHIP

CHIP is a federal-state partnership program that provides health coverage options for children whose families earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford marketplace or other coverage. To learn more about how CHIP serves children in each state, read our State CHIP Snapshots.

• Medicaid

Drug Pricing

Many Americans face significant challenges affording their medications. There is broad, bipartisan agreement that the federal government should do more to bring down prescription drug costs, but no consensus has emerged on how.

Health Equity

All children should have the opportunity to reach their full potential in life, regardless of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. CCF’s research, data analysis, and policy recommendations to address health disparities are featured here.

Immigrant Health Coverage

CCF experts explain the complex interaction between immigrantion status and eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP. They also focus on the “chilling effect” immigration policies can have on citizen children in immigrant families who are eligible but may not enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP coverage.

K-12 Education

Medicaid provides health coverage to almost half of America’s children, providing them with access to the care they need to show up for school ready to learn. Children covered by Medicaid are more likely to receive the preventive health care that keeps them in school, annual checkups that allow them to participate in sports, and treatment when they are sick or injured. Schools are also often a place where children’s disabilities are identified and where they access the services they need to succeed. Medicaid is a key source of funding for school-based health care that is especially important to students in rural areas.

Marketplace

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded health insurance coverage options for adults who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too to afford private health insurance by creating health insurance marketplaces. Millions of Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces for coverage saw their premiums double in 2026, after Congress cut funding for marketplace premium tax credits.

• Affordability

Managed Care

Managed care is the dominant delivery system for people enrolled in Medicaid. The majority of states contract with managed care plans, but there is considerable variation across states on which populations and services are included.  In 41 states and DC, most children covered by Medicaid are enrolled in managed care organizations (MCOs). MCOs play an essential role in delivering Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) services, a mandatory comprehensive benefit package for all children enrolled in Medicaid. Under federal law, state Medicaid programs must cover all medically necessary treatments that a child needs to correct health conditions and maintain health, even if the service is not offered to adults in Medicaid.

• Medicaid

Mental Health

Medicaid serves as a lifeline to millions of Americans with mental health needs and is the single largest payer of mental health services in the United States.

Program Integrity

Program integrity refers to the activities undertaken to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. Waste, fraud and abuse occurs in both private insurance and public health care programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. CCF experts mainly cover Medicaid program integrity.

• Medicaid