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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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  • 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.

  • Avoiding the Wrong Lessons From the VA and HealthCare.gov Problems

    From Drew Altman

    This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on May 27, 2014. Problems with the launch of HealthCare.gov and with veterans hospitals allegedly concealing long waits for care feed a narrative that government doesn’t work. But many government programs, including Medicare and Social Security, work well.