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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.
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Both the private and public sectors are testing various care delivery transformation models to improve quality, reduce morbidity and mortality, and contain the costs of treatment. The Alliance for Health Reform and WellPoint, Inc. hosted a September 10 briefing to discuss delivery system innovations, Medicare care coordination, and low-spending health care practices.
A new animated video on the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker provides an engaging “check-up” of the nation’s health system, addressing questions of whether it’s getting better or worse and how it compares to other countries.
The Kaiser Family Foundation, in partnership with the Peterson Center on Healthcare, today announced a new online hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.
This chart collection examines how life expectancy in the U.S. compares to that of other similarly large and wealthy countries. Between 2019 and 2022, the U.S. experienced a sharper decline and a slower rebound in life expectancy than peer countries, on average, due to increased mortality and premature death rates in the U.S. from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, life expectancy in the U.S. returned to pre-pandemic levels, but remains lower than that of comparable countries.
The Health Spending Explorer on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker helps users examine five decades worth of numbers documenting expenditures by federal and local governments, private insurers, and individuals on 15 categories of health services, including hospitals, physician and clinic care, and prescription drugs.
With so many Americans dying, and so many more suffering severe economic hardship, it’s hard to look over the horizon at the larger questions the COVID-19 crisis will bring. The current emergency requires everyone’s attention 24/7. But an emerging set of questions will fall right in the bailiwick of the health policy community.
A new analysis and chart collection finds that the U.S. has fewer hospital beds and practicing physicians per capita than many similarly large and wealthy countries with health care systems already strained by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
This slideshow examines disease burden in the United States and comparable countries as measured by Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), which take into account years of life lost due to premature death and years of productive life lost to poor health or disability. Although the U.S. disease burden rate dropped 14 percent between 1990 and 2010. comparable countries saw an average decrease of 18 percent. In the United States, mental health and musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of years lost to disability, while cancer and circulatory diseases are the leading causes of years of life lost.
In this Axios column, Drew Altman looks at how the heroic performance of the nation's doctors on the frontlines of coronavirus care and effective communication by many physician scientists on television, is shifting the public's views, with twice as many Americans now saying doctors put people ahead of profits than they did in earlier KFF polling.
The Alliance for Health Reform and WellPoint, Inc. discuss the role of urgent care centers and retail clinics emerging within the health care system.
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