Home Health Costs Topics

Health Costs

The MIDTERMS

KFF Health Tracking Poll: MAHA and the Midterms

Chemical food additive and pesticide concerns associated with the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement are shared broadly across the public. But when it comes to voters, health care costs are a higher priority and bigger motivator, even among MAHA supporters, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. When asked to identify their most important health priority for government to address, far more MAHA-supporting voters identify lowering the cost of health care (42%) than other issues more closely associated with the movement.

Affordable care act

ACA Marketplace Survey Feature Image - Website

Cost Concerns and Coverage Changes: A Follow-Up Survey of ACA Marketplace Enrollees

This KFF survey is a follow-up survey of adults who had ACA Marketplace insurance in 2025. The survey examines the cost concerns and coverage changes of Marketplace enrollees following the end of the enhanced premium tax credits and finds that half of returning enrollees say their health care costs are “a lot higher” and most expect to cut back on basic household expenses to afford coverage.

Health System Tracker

What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage? Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, but its reach is uneven.

How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries? The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024 as U.S. mortality dropped.

How Does Cost Affect Access to Health Care? In 2024, about 1 in 6 adults reported delaying or not getting healthcare due to cost, including medical or mental health care.

How Does Health Spending in the U.S. Compare to Other Countries? While the U.S. still spends the most in total dollars, eight OECD nations had a higher percentage increase in per-person health spending in 2024.

Latest News

No Posts to Show

More KFF Health News

View the Latest: Health Costs

Filter

List Grid

151 - 160 of 1,581 Results

  • Pulling it Together: Separating the Forest from the Trees in the Health Reform Debate

    Perspective

    The good news for those who care about health care is that the issue is rising again on the national agenda. If we have a big debate about health in the presidential campaign and if it is a factor at the polls in 2008, it will help create a mandate for the new president and Congress to make health care a priority in 2009. But the real health care debate has been delayed by the…

  • Accountable Care Organizations: A New Paradigm for Health Care Delivery?

    Event Date:
    Event

    The health reform law of 2010 authorizes Medicare, beginning next year, to contract with accountable care organizations (ACOs) in a Medicare Shared Savings Program. ACOs provide financial incentives to improve the coordination and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries, while reducing costs. But providers have raised red flags, saying the arrangements are burdensome and too hard to achieve. This briefing addresses questions raised by the law and the subsequent regulation implementing ACOs, including: How will…

  • Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long‐Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality of Care

    Report

    Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long‐Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality of Care This report documents the relatively high rates of hospital stays, emergency room visits and skilled nursing facility admissions among long-term care facility residents. It finds that Medicare per capita spending for Medicare beneficiaries living in nursing homes, assisted-living centers and other long-term care facilities, $14,538 in…

  • Statement of Gary Claxton to NAIC Exchanges (B) Subgroup

    Event Date:
    Event

    Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Gary Claxton, who directs the Foundation's Marketplace Policy Project, testified July 22, 2010, at a public hearing before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Exchanges (B) Subgroup established by the health reform law.  Testimony (.pdf)

  • Pulling It Together: Critical Path To Health Reform

    Perspective

    In this new section of our Web site, I pull together ideas and data from across the Foundation’s work to try to paint a bigger picture that hopefully helps to illuminate critical health policy issues. This is not a blog or a personal position statement. This second installment of the new Pulling It Together series lays out the steps that could lead to the first major national health reform debate since the early nineties. Other…

  • Pulling it Together: REPOR(t)

    Perspective

    In today’s column I investigate a somewhat lighter topic than my last column on micro-simulation modeling: What was the impact of shows like Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert’s The Colbert Report on the health reform debate?  Who among us has not wondered about the answer to this question?  Please don’t answer that. I should start by acknowledging that I am a frequent but not religious viewer of these shows, and believe that…

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — October 2009

    Feature

    The October Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds public support for health reform unchanged since last month, with more in favor than opposed. Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that it is more important than ever to take on health care reform now, while 41 percent say the country cannot afford it right now. The survey also shows about half of the public believes that if reform passes, help for the uninsured and changes in insurance market…

  • Survey Brief: Economic Problems Facing Families

    Poll Finding

    This poll finds that health care costs rank among Americans’ top personal economic problems, and their struggles to deal with those costs have affected both their financial well-being and their family’s health care. Conducted by the Foundation’s public opinion researchers, the poll probes into the economic concerns facing Americans and the ways they have dealt with the cost of health care. The poll was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family…

  • Pulling It Together: Predicting the Future

    Perspective

    A fair amount of attention was given recently to projections made by the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about the new health reform law, and how they compare to previous estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). No doubt the various projections will be grist for claims made in the upcoming political season, so it is important to be clear about the differences between the two estimates and to…

  • The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief provides a brief overview of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act, including a discussion of how the program would be financed and whom it is intended to reach. The paper was released as part of a Kaiser briefing about the act, a component of two leading health reform bills that would establish a national voluntary insurance program to allow for voluntary pre-financing of long-term care through payroll deductions and…