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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.
This brief explains the role of federal and state antitrust agencies in challenging anticompetitive practices among hospitals and other health care providers, including the legal authority of federal and state agencies, the role that they play in enforcing antitrust laws, and proposed options for strengthening their authority.
This data note from the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll explores the public's views on Medicare drug price negotiation, including how arguments on both sides impact support and opposition; confidence in leaders to do the right thing on drug pricing; and experiences with prescription drug costs.
In a new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman forecasts eight things to look for in health policy in 2026. “First and foremost,” he writes, “is the role health care affordability will play in the midterms.” And, he notes: “The average cost of a family policy for employers could approach $30,000 and cost sharing and deductibles will rise again after plateauing for several years.”
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explores the nation's twin health cost crises of affordability, especially for people who are sick and need a lot of health care, and national health spending, and why the solutions often work at cross purposes.
In this column, KFF President and CEO Drew Altman explores the potential for some health care issues—including abortion, drug costs and other affordability challenges—to influence enough voters in swing states to make a difference in this year's presidential election.
In this JAMA Health Forum column, Larry Levitt highlights how the Make America Healthy Again agenda aimed at chronic disease does little to address the affordability of health care and that efforts to lower federal spending on health care may worsen the problem, raising out-of-pocket costs for many people with Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage.
This brief explains the role and implications of cross-market mergers between hospitals and health systems that operate in different regions and describes the approaches that government antitrust agencies have taken in reviewing these types of transactions.
This issue brief examines the role that hospital charity care programs play in helping patients who are unable to afford their care. It describes how hospital charity care programs work, the amount of charity care that hospitals provide, relevant federal and state regulation, the role of Medicare and Medicaid in helping hospitals afford charity care expenses, and policy proposals related to charity care programs.
This analysis presents key facts about hospitals with more than 40 charts related to national spending on hospital care, characteristics of the hospital industry, rural hospitals, use of hospital care, out-of-pocket spending and medical debt, hospital prices, hospital finances, and charity care.
This Visualizing Health Policy infographic spotlights national spending on prescription drugs and the public’s views on pharmaceutical prices. Prescription drug spending rose sharply in 2014, driven by growth in expenditures on specialty drugs, including medications to treat cancer and hepatitis C. Medicare’s spending on prescription pharmaceuticals also has risen, largely due to the addition of the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2006: between 2004 and 2014, the program’s share of US drug expenditures increased from…
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