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Affordability

A promotional image for the the KFF Health Policy 101 Health Care Costs and Affordability chapter

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.

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  • Are Employer Health Costs Out of Control?   

    From Drew Altman

    In a new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman dissects the conventional wisdom that employer health costs are “out of control.” He writes that “the story this year is not about out-of-control employer health costs—they were moderate—or of a collapsing employer-based insurance system, although it certainly has many problems, including being propped up by a $470 billion annual tax subsidy. Instead, the story this year seems to be a conspicuous shift of premium costs…

  • What’s in a Name? From Today’s Medicare to Medicare for All

    Perspective

    In this JAMA Health Forum post, KFF's Larry Levitt explains how proposals to create Medicare-for-All promise more generous benefits than the existing Medicare program, with no premiums or cost-sharing, but could end up looking more like Medicare if it became the subject of a serious national debate about the tradeoffs involved to implement it.

  • What Do the Midterm Election Results Mean for Health Care? 

    Event Date:
    Event

    On November 5 at Noon ET, join KFF for a special post-election discussion and live "What the Health" podcast taping. Part of the discussion will focus on public opinion survey data on how voters weighed health care as they went to the polls nationally and in the four states with abortion-related ballot initiatives. 

  • Health Care and Gasoline Costs Tied as Top Economic Worries

    Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

    Issue Brief

    This data note summarizes recent KFF polling on Americans’ experiences with health care costs, which factor into decisions about insurance coverage and care seeking and consistently ranks as a top financial worry for adults and their families.

  • Building the AI Hospital

    Podcast

    Walk into the emergency room at Israel’s largest hospital and the first clinician to take your history may be an AI avatar — with a physician signing off on every recommendation. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center is building what could become the first fully AI-based hospital by 2030. Dr. Eyal Zimlichman, Sheba's Chief Transformation Officer, Chief Innovation Officer and Chief AI officer, talks with Chip about what that means for patients. During their conversation, Dr. Zimlichman…

  • AI in Health Care: Who Gets Left Behind?

    Podcast

    Health care's AI future is being built right now. The open question is “for whom?” Dr. Uché Blackstock — emergency physician, former associate professor at NYU School of Medicine, founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, and author of The New York Times bestseller “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine” — joins host Chip Kahn to argue that AI governance should be shaped not only by regulators and review boards, but by…

  • How Much Do People with Medicare Pay for Coverage?

    Issue Brief

    While Medicare covers a wide range of health care services, Medicare beneficiaries generally pay out-of-pocket for their monthly premiums, deductibles, and cost sharing for Medicare covered services. This brief provides an overview of the costs faced by Medicare beneficiaries in traditional Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and Medicare Part D, including premiums, deductibles, copays, and coinsurance, focusing on costs in 2026.