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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.” Read more

Beyond the Data

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

How an ACA Premium Spike Will Affect Family Budgets, and Voters

In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman shows how spiking premiums, which may come if the enhanced ACA tax credits are not extended, will hit people in the context of their family budgets, alongside rising costs for food, housing and utilities. For some families, their new health care costs could far exceed what they pay for food, affecting their economic security and potentially their vote.

View All Beyond the Data Columns

View the Latest: From Drew Altman

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  • The Two Big Decisions That Will Drive Health Policy

    From Drew Altman

    KFF’s president and CEO Drew Altman writes in a new column about the factors driving the biggest health policy decisions now—how to pay for tax cuts and whether President Trump wants another big fight about health care.

  • Could Trump Walk Away from Unpopular Health Proposals?

    From Drew Altman

    In a new column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman discusses what President Trump’s decision to pull back the broad freeze in federal grant funding might portend for his response to future policies in health that prove controversial or unpopular.

  • A Few Thoughts After Twenty-Five Years Half In and Half Out of Journalism

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column, KFF’s President and CEO Drew Altman dissects a few key challenges facing journalism, observed over decades overseeing KFF’s health journalism and media programs, including launching KFF Health News as its Founding Publisher in 2009.  He discusses the need for more coverage of state health policy decisions, how news can play a role in countering and not spreading misinformation, and the pros and cons of journalism awards, among others.

  • The Semi-Sad State of Consumer Protection In Health Care

    From Drew Altman

    In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explores the state of consumer protections in health care and explains why, even with consumer frustration clear, Congress is unlikely to pursue major new health insurance protections but there could be some modest steps.

  • Making Sense of Medicaid Work Requirements

    From Drew Altman

    In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman examines the data and history around adding work requirements to Medicaid and why the administrative burdens it imposes may offset any savings even for states that ideologically favor such an approach.

  • The Twin Problems of Mental Health Care: Access and Affordability

    From Drew Altman

    In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman analyzes the serious access and affordability challenges facing people with mental health problems and suggests the issue could be one of a few candidates for bipartisan action in the next Congress.

  • Lessons From the Election About Voters and Health

    From Drew Altman

    In this column, KFF president and CEO Drew Altman explores why health costs weigh heavily among voters' economic concerns, even in an election where health was not a flashpoint. The need to reframe health as a pocketbook issue for voters will be central to the competition for the votes of working class Latino voters, two groups very focused on the cost of living.

  • The Role Health PLAYED in the Election

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman provides an early post-mortem on the role health played in the election, discussing the many ways it did play a role in the campaign — even if not a decisive one.

  • Health Policy is Partisan, But It’s Also Personal

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explores how America's big health care programs — Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — provide popular benefits valued by Americans from across the political spectrum. As partisan debates move closer to legislation, people may focus more on their personal financial concerns.

  • Springfield, Ohio: How Candidates Amplify Misinformation

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explains the impact of misinformation about immigrants, examining the challenges of correcting misinformation shared by candidates or potentially amplifying it.