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KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
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In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses how the debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about how to get to universal coverage has generated more support among Democrats for expanding the Affordable Care Act (and less support for the law as is).
In the wake of the lead crisis affecting drinking water in Flint, Mich., the public now ranks contaminated drinking water among the most serious national health issues, trailing cancer, according to the April Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. When asked about a series of health issues facing the country, more than a third (35%) identify contaminated drinking water as “extremely serious,” behind cancer (43%) and similar to heroin abuse (35%) and ahead of major diseases such…
Voters Rank Health Care Fourth As Issue for Presidential Candidates to Discuss With the Democratic presidential primary featuring a debate about how to get to universal health coverage in the United States, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds most Democrats want Congress to expand the Affordable Care Act, contributing to a widening gap between unfavorable and favorable views of the health reform law. Overall the poll finds that this month 49 percent of the…
In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman analyzes the Kaiser Health Policy News Index to determine which health stories in the news have broken through to the public the most in the last year. One conclusion: It wasn't the Affordable Care Act.
Strong Support for U.S. Role in Combatting Zika At Home and Abroad When it comes to world affairs, majorities of Americans list fighting terrorism (64%), protecting human rights (60%), and protecting the environment and fighting climate change (51%) as top priorities for the president and Congress, finds a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey of the public’s views on the United States’ role in global health. Global health ranks somewhat lower on the public’s priority list,…
A withdrawal by UnitedHealth Group from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces in 2017 could have a significant impact on insurer competition and premiums in some markets, though it would have a minimal effect on the average benchmark premium nationwide, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Late last year, UnitedHealth announced that it experienced significant financial losses in ACA compliant plans and that it would decide about future participation in ACA…
This Visualizing Health Policy infographic spotlights national spending on prescription drugs and the public’s views on pharmaceutical prices. Prescription drug spending rose sharply in 2014, driven by growth in expenditures on specialty drugs, including medications to treat cancer and hepatitis C. Medicare’s spending on prescription pharmaceuticals also has risen, largely due to the addition of the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006: between 2004 and 2014, the program’s share of US drug expenditures increased from…
In this new policy insight, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Tricia Neuman examines current rules that may discourage seniors from switching from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare.Traditional Medicare…Disadvantaged? explores this issue through the lens of a 67-year old Boomer who faced difficult financial and health coverage choices in the aftermath of a serious mountain biking accident. Previous columns in the Policy Insights series are also available.
What is Zika, how many countries are affected by it, and what is the U.S. doing to respond to the rapid spread of the virus? To better understand Zika, a new Kaiser Family Foundation infographic offers key facts about the virus, tracks the increasing number of countries reporting local transmission over the past year, and breaks down how key U.S. government agencies are responding to Zika. Other Kaiser Family Foundation resources on the Zika virus…
A Founding Editor of Kaiser Health News Died Last Week of Complications from Rare Health Condition WASHINGTON, D.C.– The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) is honoring the late Peggy Girshman, a founding executive editor of Kaiser Health News (KHN), by naming its annual web reporting fellowship for young journalists the "Peggy Girshman Web Reporting Fellowship." Girshman died last week at the age of 61 due to complications from the rare disease amyloidosis, which she had battled for the past few years. Girshman joined the Kaiser Family…
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