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KFF’s policy research provides facts and analysis on a wide range of policy issues and public programs.
KFF designs, conducts and analyzes original public opinion and survey research on Americans’ attitudes, knowledge, and experiences with the health care system to help amplify the public’s voice in major national debates.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the organization’s core operating programs.
Health Policy 101 is a comprehensive guide covering fundamental aspects of U.S. health policy and programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, employer-sponsored insurance, the uninsured population, health care costs and affordability, women's health issues, and health care politics. The Health Care Costs and Affordability chapter explores trends in health care costs in the U.S. and the factors that contribute to this spending. It also examines how health care spending varies across the population, the impact of costs on care affordability and individuals' overall financial vulnerability.
An improving economy and the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate may be behind a modest increase in the share of Americans with job-based health insurance in recent years, but the long-term trend remains a downward one, according to a new KFF analysis.
A new interactive tool from KFF estimates total household health spending for individuals and families in the U.S., including costs that are often less visible to consumers. Users can generate scenarios based on family size, income level, insurance source, and health status.
This side-by-side interactive compares 10 bills to expand public health coverage through Medicare-for-All, a public option and other approaches, that have been introduced in the current Congress. The interactive allows users to compare these proposals across a number of dimensions, including eligibility, benefits, cost sharing, provider payments, and more.
This KFF analysis finds that expanding Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has proposed would lower the cost of Marketplace coverage for nearly all potential enrollees, including the uninsured and others currently priced out of the Marketplace. Biden's plan would, however, increase federal spending, which we do not attempt to estimate here.
A new KFF analysis finds that expanding Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium subsidies like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has proposed would lower the cost of Marketplace coverage for nearly all potential enrollees, including the uninsured and others currently priced out of the Marketplace.
A new chart collection examines what we know about the cost of common health services in the U.S. The analysis shows that costs for many common health services have risen more rapidly than inflation; for example, the average cost of hospital admission among large employer plans increased by about $10,000 (68%) between 2008 and 2018.
This brief highlights voices from adult focus group participants with low and moderate incomes who gained Medicaid or Marketplace coverage following implementation of the ACA. It focuses on work, including work status, the new labor market, job benefits, and the role of ACA coverage for those with non-traditional jobs.
The survey, conducted shortly after the close of the Affordable Care Act’s third open enrollment period, is the third in a series exploring the experiences of individuals who purchase their own health insurance in the nongroup market, including coverage purchased both inside and outside the ACA’s marketplaces. It examines enrollees’ satisfaction with their health plans’ premiums, deductibles, and provider networks, their views on affordability, shopping experiences, and problems encountered with their plans.
This new analysis and chartbook examines out-of-pocket spending among Medicare beneficiaries, including spending on health and long-term care services and insurance premiums, using the most current year of data available from a nationally representative survey of people on Medicare. It explores which types of services account for a relatively large share of out-of-pocket spending, which groups of beneficiaries (including by age, gender, health status, and chronic conditions) are especially hard hit by high out-of-pocket costs, and trends in out-of-pocket spending between 2000 and 2010.
This report examines the causes and contributors to medical debt, medical bankruptcy, and other difficulties with medical bills among people with insurance. Through in-depth interviews of nearly two-dozen people and quantitative analysis of national survey data, the authors of this report find that in-network and out-of-net-work cost sharing primarily contribute to medical debt among the insured.
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