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Eight Trends Shaping 2026 Health Care Costs

Authors: Lynne Cotter, Emma Wager, Hattie Xu, Tom Lebert, Julia Harris, Brad Brockbank, and Matthew Rae
Published: Mar 17, 2026

Health care affordability is top of mind for many Americans, rising well above other necessities based on recent KFF polling.

A new Peterson-KFF policy explainer lays out the health care trends shaping the 2026 policy debates, including rising premiums, spending on prescription drugs, health care price transparency and consolidation, artificial intelligence in health care, and Medicaid funding cuts and other key program changes.

This brief is available through the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an online information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.

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Affordable Care Act Health Costs Medicaid Affordability Artificial Intelligence Premiums Prescription Drugs Prices State Budgets

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Health System Tracker

The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker provides clear, up-to-date information on trends, drivers and issues that impact the performance of the healthcare system.

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