Why is There So Much Attention on Obesity Drugs?
High U.S. prices and demand for Ozempic and Wegovy have implications for insurance premiums, public program costs, and affordability.
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Eliquis’s New Lower Direct-to-Consumer Price is Still Higher Than Medicare’s Negotiated Price
Quick InsightsVoluntary efforts by drug companies to lower prices on selected medications, such as this new discounted price for Eliquis and previous price reductions on certain insulin products, could expand access to lower-priced drugs for some patients, but are not likely to improve prescription drug affordability in the U.S. on a widespread basis.
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Why Do We Hear More About High Drug Prices Than About Hospital Prices?
PerspectiveIn this JAMA Health Forum post, KFF's Larry Levitt outlines four reasons why high drug prices are in the spotlight more than hospital prices, even though hospitals accounted for 40% of the growth in national health spending from 2022 to 2024, and explores the potential for policy action to restrain them.
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Price Regulation, Global Budgets, and Spending Targets: A Road Map to Reduce Health Care Spending, and Improve Affordability
ReportWe review several policy options to constrain health care spending, primarily by putting downward pressure on provider prices, including price regulation, global budgets, and spending growth targets.
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Eight Trends Shaping 2026 Health Care Costs
Other PostA new Peterson-KFF policy explainer lays out the health care trends shaping the 2026 policy debates, including rising premiums, spending on prescription drugs, health care price transparency and consolidation, artificial intelligence in health care, Medicaid funding cuts and other key program changes.
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Why Higher Drug Costs Are Consumers’ Biggest Cost Worry
From Drew AltmanIn this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why public concern over drug prices is the “tip of the iceberg” representing broader concerns about out-of-pocket health care costs.
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Ten Things to Know About Consolidation in Health Care Provider Markets
News ReleaseMergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and other health care providers are drawing attention from federal and state regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, and policymakers amid concerns that such consolidations can reduce competition and contribute to the high costs of health care. A new KFF brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation among health care providers as more community hospitals become part of a larger system, and more physicians are in practices owned by…
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Hospital Prices Have Risen Much Faster for Private Insurance Than Medicare Since 2019
Issue BriefThis brief compares the prices paid by private insurers for hospital care to increases in Medicare payment using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Producer Price Index (PPI), finding that hospital prices have risen much faster for private insurance than Medicare since 2019.
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Medicare’s Proposed Cut to 340B Drug Payments Would Hit Safety-Net Hospitals While Benefiting For-Profit Hospitals
Policy WatchThis analysis finds that CMS’s proposed cut to Medicare reimbursement for 340B drugs, and accompanying increase for other outpatient services, would reduce revenues among safety-net hospitals while increasing revenues among for-profit hospitals.
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Health Spending is Rising More Sharply Again
News ReleaseIn his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why high health care prices are a problem for consumers, but not a cause of renewed growth in health spending. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.