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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.

A Note on How the War in Iran May Affect Health Care in the Midterms

In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, KFF’s President and CEO, discusses the impact of the war in Iran and rising gas prices on voter concerns about health care costs. He writes: “Recently, we saw health care costs rise to the top of the public’s list of economic worries, ahead of food, housing, utility costs and the cost of gas….Expect gas prices to rise and health care costs to fall on the list of affordability worries while the war in Iran lasts, but then to return to the top or near the top when President Trump decides to declare the major hostilities over, the Strait of Hormuz is open, and gas prices come down….health care costs have staying power as one of the top voter concerns.”

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  • Medicare-for-All vs. Single Payer: The Impact of Labels

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, "Medicare-for-All vs. Single Payer: The Impact of Labels", Drew Altman uses new polling on a Medicare-for-all or single payer health system to explain how what you call a health reform plan can substantially affect the public's response.

  • Behind the Challenges to Universal Health Coverage

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why political reality and the diverse makeup of the remaining uninsured population mean that the likeliest path to universal coverage is a multi-step approach.

  • What New Data Tell Us About Doctor Choice

    From Drew Altman

    Drew Altman explores the rhetoric versus reality on whether choice of doctors is eroding and why the issue resonates with Americans, in this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank.

  • How Health-Care Bills Hinder Millions of Americans

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman examines the problems many Americans with health insurance are having paying medical bills based on a new Kaiser-New York Times Survey, and discusses why the issue of the adequacy of insurance coverage is gaining traction.

  • How High Drug Prices Weigh on the Sickest Americans

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman explores the data behind public concern about prescription drug costs and highlights that the people most in need are the most burdened by the problem.

  • Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Medicare for All

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman explores the differing positions of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on a single payer or Medicare-for-all health care system and whether Democratic voters consider it an important factor in the 2016 primaries.