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While the Affordable Care Act requires most private health plans to provide coverage with no cost-sharing for a range of recommended preventive services, including female contraceptives and female sterilization, because male condoms and vasectomy procedures are considered to be services for men, they are not required to be covered under the law.  Vasectomies, considered permanent…

Routine vaccination rates for kindergarten children continue to decline in the U.S., while exemptions from school vaccination requirements, particularly non-medical exemptions, have increased. These trends began during the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued over time (Figure 1). Recent trends appear to be related to increasing vaccine hesitancy, fueled in part by vaccine misinformation. The past few years…

Cases and Deaths SOURCES As of March 7, 2023, all data on COVID-19 cases and deaths are drawn from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. Prior to March 7, 2023, this tracker relied on data provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center’s COVID-19 Map, which ends on March 10, 2023….

A new analysis of initial rate filings for Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans submitted by 312 insurers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia finds the median proposed increase for 2026 is 18%, more than double last year’s 7% median proposed increase. The proposed rates are preliminary and could change before being…

Key Takeaways Just over half (55%) of adults, including larger shares of young adults and Black and Hispanic adults, say they use social media to find health information and advice at least occasionally and most adults report seeing health-related content in the past month on social media, with the largest shares saying they’ve seen content…

Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) deliver care to three-quarters of all Medicaid enrollees nationally. MCOs often require patients to obtain approval of certain health care services or medications before the care is provided—an insurance practice commonly referred to as “prior authorization”. This allows the MCO to evaluate whether care is covered, medically necessary, and being delivered…

Editorial Note This brief was updated on August 11, 2025 to correct the number of states that allow and prohibit minors to consent to their own contraceptive care. Across the country, minors’ ability to consent to their health care, particularly their reproductive health care, varies significantly. Expanding “parental rights’ in health and education has been…