The Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker provides clear, up-to-date information on trends, drivers and issues that impact the performance of the system. It also illustrates how the U.S. is performing relative to other countries and how different parts of the system are performing relative to one another. A partnership of the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the KFF, the Tracker’s work goal places a heavy emphasis on data and evidence, addressing key questions through collections of charts, which provide data with additional context and synthesis of the latest research and developments. The Tracker also provide regular insight briefs for a more in-depth look at topical questions.
Featured Peterson-KFF Resources
The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States
This analysis uses government data to examine the burden of medical debt, including variations based on age, race and ethnicity, and health status . It estimates 9% of adults – or roughly 23 million people -owe medical debt, including 11 million who owe more than $2,000.
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Related Peterson-KFF Resources
- COVID-19 preventable mortality
- Many households do not have enough money to pay cost-sharing typical in private health plans
- Unvaccinated COVID patients cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars
- Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment
- Few Adults Are Aware of Hospital Price Transparency Requirements
- Surprise Bills Vary by Diagnosis and Type of Admission
- Overall inflation has not yet flowed through to the health sector
- How does the quality of the U.S. health care system compare to other countries?
- Health System Dashboard
National Health Spending Explorer
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.
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Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment
This analysis finds nearly three quarters of the largest health plans in each state are no longer waiving enrollees’ cost-sharing requirements for COVID-19 treatment as of August 2021. Insurers largely waived those costs early in the pandemic, before safe and effetive vaccines were available.
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Early 2021 Data Show No Rebound in Health Care Utilization
This analysis finds hospital admissions remained below expected levels in early 2021, suggesting much of the care people put off during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been forgone altogether.
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Most Insurers Participating in the Marketplaces Don’t Expect COVID to Affect Their 2022 Costs
After a tumultuous year of unpredictable COVID-19 changes to utilization and spending, a review of early rate filings for individual market insurers participating in the Affordable Care Act Marketplace finds that most are expecting a return to normal in 2022 without the pandemic playing a large role. The review of…
News Release Read More Poll: Few are Aware of Hospital Price Transparency Requirements
Few Americans realize that starting this year hospitals are required to post prices of common health services on their websites in a format patients can access and use, data from the KFF Health Tracking poll shows. Federal regulations that took effect January 1 require this price transparency for hospitals to…
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Few Adults Are Aware of Hospital Price Transparency Requirements
This data note for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker shows that few Americans realize that starting this year hospitals are required to post prices of common health services on their websites in a format patients can access and use.
Issue Brief Read More Analysis: Half of Emergency Ambulance Rides Lead to Out-of-Network Bills for Privately Insured Patients
About half of emergency ground ambulance rides result in an out-of-network charge for people with private health insurance, potentially leaving patients at risk of getting a surprise bill, a new KFF analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker finds. Congress last year enacted the “No Surprises Act,” which prohibits most…
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Ground Ambulance Rides and Potential for Surprise Billing
This analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker finds that half of emergency ground ambulance rides result in an out-of-network charge for people with private health insurance, potentially leaving patients at risk of getting a surprise bill.
Issue Brief Read More Analysis: Hospital Price Transparency Data Lacks Standardization, Limiting Its Use to Insurers, Employers, and Consumers
In spite of a new price transparency rule that requires hospitals to publish the prices of common health services, comparing prices across hospitals remains challenging due to limited compliance with the law and a lack of standardization in the available data, a new KFF analysis finds. The federal rule, which…
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Early Results from Federal Price Transparency Rule Show Difficultly in Estimating the Cost of Care
A new issue brief examines compliance with a new federal price transparency rule and variation in payer-negotiated rates at U.S. hospitals. The analysis looks at the websites of the two largest hospitals in each state and the District of Columbia, and finds that a lack of consistency in the data…
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COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Excess Mortality and Potential Years of Life Lost in the U.S. and Peer Countries
A new issue brief reviews excess death rates in the U.S. and peer countries by age groups to examine how the pandemic has affected excess mortality rate among younger people. The analysis looks specifically at the excess deaths that arose in 2020 to examine how the age at death during…
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