How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

For decades, the cost of medical care, prescription drugs and health insurance has consistently risen faster than general inflation and wage growth, posing financial challenges for government, businesses and people. KFF polling has found that the cost of health care ranks as the top economic worry for adults and their families, and has implications for their financial security and access to care. Even people with insurance say they struggle to afford health care costs, and health care debt is a burden for a large share of Americans. Policymakers and experts across the ideological spectrum define affordability in different ways and have different policy solutions.

At 12:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 21, three experts will join Health Wonk Shop series moderator Larry Levitt in an hour-long discussion of health care affordability. During the discussion, panelists will consider affordability from a variety of perspectives, including how to define affordability and the question of affordability for whom, how to measure it, and what can be done to address affordability and the underlying cost of health care.

Moderator

Larry Levitt

Executive Vice President for Health Policy

Panelists

Sherry Glied

Professor of Public Service, New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Benedic Ippolito

Senior Fellow in Economic Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Ashley Kirzinger

Director of Survey Methodology, Associate Director for Public Opinion and Survey Research