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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.

The Semi-Sad Prospects for Controlling Employer Health Care Costs

In a commentary on KFF’s 27th employer health benefits survey, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman discusses the obstacles employers face trying to control their health care costs, and the reasons why they’ve never been meaningful supporters of government cost-containment efforts. He predicts that premium increases expected next year could lead to a new wave of higher deductibles and other forms of cost sharing for the 155 million Americans who rely on employer coverage. Read the column here.

View All Beyond the Data Columns

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  • The Stakes Beyond the Halbig Lawsuit

    From Drew Altman

    In a column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses if the legal court cases about whether the government can provide tax credits to people in the Affordable Care Act’s federal health exchanges will be perceived by the American people as a legitimate legal question or as more inside-Washington politics.

  • How Obamacare’s Progress Makes Expanding Coverage Harder

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on July 21, 2014. The Affordable Care Act’s success meeting its initial enrollment goals and the repair of HealthCare.gov seem to have calmed the political waters for Obamacare.

  • What’s Trending in Health Care? Conservative Ideas

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman cuts through the political debate and reviews how some ideas conservatives like are taking hold in the American health system.

  • Why the Political Heat on the ACA Is Cooling

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman explores some early indicators that the political waters may be calming for the Affordable Care Act.

  • What Women Think of the Core Issue in the Hobby Lobby Case

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on June 30, 2014. The Supreme Court decision upholding Hobby Lobby’s ability to refuse to cover certain contraceptive services based on its owners’ religious beliefs has set off a wave of analysis of what the decision means. That will not be resolved anytime soon.

  • On Medicaid Expansion, Red States Will Be Watching Red States

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on June 30, 2014. Since the Supreme Court made expanding Medicaid optional for states under the Affordable Care Act, 26 states have expanded Medicaid.

  • Does the Affordable Care Act Cover the Uninsured?

    From Drew Altman

    Drew Altman, in The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, discusses what a new Foundation survey finds about one of the biggest questions about the Affordable Care Act: whether it covers the uninsured.

  • The Truth About Those ‘Greedy’ Seniors

    From Drew Altman

    In The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman asks, "what’s your image of America’s seniors?" and provides some facts on the income and assets of Medicare enrollees.

  • How Much Political Coverage of the Health-Care Law Is Too Much?

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on June 5, 2014. With primaries underway and the midterms approaching, coverage of the Affordable Care Act will increasingly focus on politics. Many political reporters may take temporary control of the health-care beat during the leadup to November.

  • An Opportunity Amid the VA Problems

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on May 30, 2014.   Gen. Eric Shinseki resigned when it became clear that the problems in the VA health-care system were systemic, not one-off acts of a few bad apples.