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From Drew Altman

Drew Altman is president and chief executive officer of KFF, a position he has held for more than 30 years since founding the modern-day KFF organization in the 1990s. He is a leading expert on national health policy issues and an innovator in health journalism and the nonprofit field.

View full bio | Read Dr. Altman's Beyond the Data columns

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President’s Message

“KFF is an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. We have four major program areas: KFF Policy; KFF Polling; KFF Health News (formerly Kaiser Health News); and KFF Social Impact Media, which conducts specialized public health information campaigns. Learn more about the organization. 

What’s unique about KFF, however, can’t be found in any description of our programs because we’re more than a sum of our parts. KFF is a one-of-a-kind information organization. Not a policy research organization. Not a polling organization. And not a news organization. But rather, a unique combination of all three. That’s the vision behind KFF, and it's this combination that allows us to leverage our combined expertise and assets to play our national role on health policy.”

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Beyond the Data

In his “Beyond the Data” columns, Dr. Altman discusses what the data, polls, and journalism produced by KFF mean for policy and for people.

Drew Altman, KFF President and CEP is quoted on this card saying, "People are bewildered by a supercharged and polarized debate about vaccines and no longer know where to turn for scientific information they can rely on ... The vaccines are not the culprit—we and the state of our politics and the distrust in science and our scientific institutions they breed are."

The Problem Isn’t Trust in Vaccines, It’s That People Don’t Know Who to Trust

In a new “Beyond the Data” column, Dr. Altman analyzes years of KFF polling on vaccines in light of the current controversies about them. The real problem, he says, is not lack of public confidence in the safety of vaccines — few say they are unsafe — it’s that polarization and misinformation have eroded confidence in what’s true or not, and in scientific institutions people used to rely on for the facts.

View All Beyond the Data Columns

View the Latest: From Drew Altman

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  • One Big Thing People Don’t Know About Single Payer

    From Drew Altman

    In this Axios column, Drew Altman discusses a challenge for single payer which has not received much attention – a large share of the American people do not think they would have to change their current health insurance arrangements if there were a Medicare-for-all style single payer plan.

  • Keeping the Alexander-Murray Health Care Bill in Context

    From Drew Altman

    This Drew Altman Axios column describes the scale of the problems in the ACA marketplaces and the public’s confusion about whether they are impacted. He says that the news media, experts and policy makers can do more to put the marketplace problems and fixes in context as debate evolves.

  • How Single Payer Helps Republicans Change the Subject

    From Drew Altman

    In this Axios column, Drew Altman analyzes the political pros and cons of single payer for Democrats and whether it will shift the focus from the Republicans' failed effort to repeal and replace  the Affordable Care Act to the Democrats new sweeping plan.

  • How to Keep ACA Stabilization Narrow

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for Axios, Drew Altman discusses the main challenges for members and media coverage as members take up the issue of stabilization of the Affordable Care Act.

  • The ACA Stability “Crisis” In Perspective

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for Axios, Drew Altman presents new data analysis showing how many people are impacted by premium increases in the non-group market, and discusses the implications. 

  • It’s Not Obamacare Anymore. It’s Our National Health-Care System.

    From Drew Altman

    In this Washington Post op-ed, Drew Altman and Larry Levitt discuss why the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed and what it will take for congress and the administration to address the next challenge, providing long-term stability to the ACA marketplaces.

  • Public Wants Republicans to Work with Democrats on Health Care

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for Axios, Drew Altman discusses a new poll finding showing substantial support for Republicans to drop repeal and work with Democrats on improving the Affordable Care Act, from the general public, Trump supporters, and Republicans.

  • The Republican Base is Getting Less Excited About Health Care

    From Drew Altman

    In this Axios column, Drew Altman explains that as Republican policymakers are focused on delivering a repeal of Obamacare for their base, polling shows that it’s not a top priority for Trump supporters, and their intensity on a replacement plan has declined, suggesting that the issue may not drive turnout for future elections.