Home Health System Tracker Series

Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker

The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker is an online hub monitoring how well the U.S. health system is operating through key quality and cost measures. A partnership of the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF, the Tracker documents trends in Health Spending, Quality of Care, Access & Affordability, and Health & Wellbeing through issue briefs and downloadable chart collections. The Tracker also includes the Interactive Health Spending Explorer tool, which helps users analyze more than 50 years of health expenditure data, and a Health System Dashboard, which provides quick and easy access to the latest, most relevant statistics.

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  • What Drives Health Spending in the U.S. Compared to Other Countries

    Issue Brief

    An updated issue brief looks at the drivers of health spending in the U.S. and key differences between the U.S. and other large, wealthy nations. The analysis finds that people in the U.S. spent $5,683 more per person on health care compared to those in similarly large and wealthy countries. Almost 80% of the difference in spending came from inpatient and outpatient care costs. Many retail prescription drugs also cost more in the U.S. In…

  • Costly GLP-1 Drugs are Rarely Covered for Weight Loss by Marketplace Plans

    News Release

    Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans rarely cover GLP-1 drugs approved solely for obesity treatment, according to a new KFF analysis of 2024 federal plan data. Wegovy, a drug that is approved for weight loss, is covered by just 1% of Marketplace prescription drug plans, compared to 82% of Marketplace prescription drug plans for Ozempic, which contains the same active ingredient as Wegovy (semaglutide) but is approved only for diabetes. When GLP-1 drugs are covered…

  • Insurer Strategies to Control Costs Associated with Weight Loss Drugs

    Issue Brief

    Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace plans rarely cover GLP-1 drugs approved solely for obesity treatment, according to a an analysis of 2024 federal plan data. Wegovy, a drug that is approved for weight loss, is covered by just 1% of Marketplace prescription drug plans, compared to 82% of Marketplace prescription drug plans for Ozempic, which contains the same active ingredient as Wegovy (semaglutide) but is approved only for diabetes. This analysis examines publicly available formularies…

  • Medical Debt Among New Mothers

    Issue Brief

    This analysis examines the share of new mothers who have significant medical debt (in excess of $250), compared to other young women who did not recently give birth, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

  • Charges for Emails with Doctors and other Healthcare Providers

    Issue Brief

    Patient-provider email messaging accelerated early in the COVID-19 pandemic as more patients sought medical care remotely, and the addition of billing codes for digital health services and subsequent changes in insurers’ payment policies have enabled providers to bill insurers and patients for messaging. This analysis examines the typical cost of patient-provider email messaging in 2020 and 2021 using private health insurance claims data. The typical cost for an email messaging claim was $39 in 2021,…

  • People with Medical Debt are Much More Likely to Experience Other Forms of Financial Stress

    News Release

    People with medical debt are much more likely than those without such debt to show other signs of financial vulnerability, like having no “rainy day” fund, overdrawing a checking account, or relying on costly loans, according to a new KFF analysis of national survey data. Medical debt remains a significant issue in the U.S., including among people with health insurance. In 2021, 23% of U.S. adults had one or more unpaid and past due bills…

  • How Financially Vulnerable are People with Medical Debt?

    Issue Brief

    This analysis of government data finds that people with medical debt are much more likely to have other forms of financial distress than those without medical debt, like having no “rainy day” fund, overdrawing a checking account, or relying on costly loans.

  • The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States

    Issue Brief

    This analysis uses government data to examine the burden of medical debt, including variations based on state, age, race and ethnicity, and health status. It estimates that people in the United States owe at least $220 billion in medical debt.