In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman analyzes the Kaiser Health Policy News Index to determine which health stories in the news have broken through to the public the most in the last year. One conclusion: It wasn’t the Affordable Care Act.

In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman analyzes the Kaiser Health Policy News Index to determine which health stories in the news have broken through to the public the most in the last year. One conclusion: it wasn’t the Affordable Care Act.

Strong Support for U.S. Role in Combatting Zika At Home and Abroad When it comes to world affairs, majorities of Americans list fighting terrorism (64%), protecting human rights (60%), and protecting the environment and fighting climate change (51%) as top priorities for the president and Congress, finds a new Kaiser…

The 2016 Survey of Americans on the U.S. Role in Global Health is the latest in a series of surveys designed, conducted, and analyzed by the Kaiser Family Foundation in order to shed light on the American public’s perceptions, knowledge, and attitudes about the role of the United States in efforts to improve health for people in developing countries. This most recent survey updates trends on Americans’ perceptions of the most urgent problems facing developing countries, views on U.S. spending on health, and U.S. priorities for women’s health in developing countries. It also explores new questions on Americans’ awareness of the Zika virus outbreak and recent U.S. efforts to combat the outbreak both at home and in developing countries.

Following Flint Water Crisis, Nearly Half Worry about Their Community’s Water Supply Almost Half of Public is Concerned about a Widespread Zika Outbreak in U.S. This Year The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds the public as divided as the remaining presidential candidates over their vision for the future of…

The February Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds Americans are divided on possible changes to the current health care system with 36 percent of Americans saying policymakers should build on the existing law to improve affordability and access to care, 16 percent saying they would like to see the health care law repealed and not replaced, 13 percent saying the current law should be repealed and replaced with a Republican-sponsored alternative, and 24 percent saying the U.S. should establish guaranteed universal coverage through a single government plan. When asked specifically about universal coverage through a single government plan, half say they favor the idea while 43 percent say they oppose it, and some opinions swayed after hearing counterarguments. Opinions also differ depending on the terms used to describe the idea of expanding health insurance coverage to all Americans. This month’s poll also examine awareness and attitudes of the top health policy news stories- the unsafe lead levels in Flint Michigan’s water and the Zika virus outbreak.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has tracked public opinion on global health issues in-depth since 2009. This most recent survey examines views on U.S. spending on health in developing countries and perceptions of barriers and challenges to making progress on the issue. Two-thirds of Americans (65 percent) overall and majorities of Democrats, independents and Republicans alike, say that the United States should play at least a major role in world affairs, including roughly one in five overall (18 percent) who say the U.S. should take the leading role. The survey also finds a general skepticism on the part of the American people when it comes to the effectiveness of global health spending, with seven in ten saying the “bang for the buck” of U.S. spending in this area is only fair or poor, and more than half believing that spending more on global health efforts won’t lead to meaningful progress (a share that has grown since 2012). Although many Americans have concerns about the value of global health spending, six in ten say the U.S. spends too little (26 percent) or about the right amount (34 percent) on global health, and three in ten say it spends too much. Most also recognize benefits to such spending, both for Americans at home as well as for people and communities in developing countries.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey about the U.S. role in global health finds the public puts meeting basic needs such as improving access to clean water and food and helping children at the top of the priority list for U.S. global health spending. Addressing the Ebola outbreak in West…

This survey about the U.S. role in global health finds.Americans’ top priorities for global health funding focus on meeting basic human needs such as improving access to clean water and food and helping children. Addressing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is also a top priority. Some high profile issues such as malaria and reproductive health rank further down the list.. A large majority of the public overestimates the share of the U.S. federal budget spent on foreign aid.

In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses what the public was more concerned about in November, Ebola or the results of the midterm elections. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.