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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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  • Will the Iran Debate Defuse Partisan Battles Over Obamacare?

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses whether the debate about the Iran deal may bring a respite for the Affordable Care Act from politics as usual, and how long it might last.

  • Takeaways From Alaska’s Medicaid Expansion

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses the implications of the governor of Alaska’s decision to move ahead unilaterally with Medicaid expansion.

  • What a Break in the Obamacare Battles Could Bring

    From Drew Altman

    Following the Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell decision, the Affordable Care Act could use a break from the intense political heat, though it may not get a long one as the 2016 election season heats up and presidential candidates play to their bases on health care, writes Drew Altman in his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank.

  • Amid Merger Talk, a Look at Health Insurers’ Medicare Business

    From Drew Altman

    With recent news about possible health insurance company mergers, Drew Altman looks beyond the impact on Wall Street to how mergers could affect Medicare beneficiaries in this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank.

  • A Gender Gap in Economic Security for Seniors

    From Drew Altman

    Following up on an earlier column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank on seniors and poverty, Drew Altman looks at why older women will be more at risk of economic insecurity than men in the future.

  • Facing the Fallout From a King v. Burwell Ruling

    From Drew Altman

    With a Supreme Court decision on King v. Burwell looming, this Drew Altman column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank plays out the politics of a ruling for the two major parties.

  • New Evidence Health Spending Is Growing Faster Again

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses new Census Department survey data showing higher health spending growth over the last four economic quarters, and raises the question: is the health spending slowdown over?

  • Seniors and Income Inequality: How Things Get Worse With Age

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why seniors need to be included in the national discussion on income inequality, especially as proposals to change Medicare and Social Security are considered.

  • King v. Burwell and Media Coverage

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman lays out the news media’s challenge covering the upcoming Supreme Court King v. Burwell decision about the ACA.