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“...the search for a single top issue through polling questions — whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food — is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, ‘cost of living.’” — Drew Altman, KFF Founding President and CEO

Are Health Care Costs THE Top Issue for Voters?

In a new column, Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, analyzes the polling on health costs as a voting issue and concludes that there is no one top voting issue. He writes: “I have come to the conclusion that the search for a single top issue through polling questions—whether it’s health costs, or gas prices, or the cost of food—is artificial. People worry about and experience these costs together. There is no top issue, unless that issue is the catchall, “cost of living.”

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How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

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On Tuesday, July 21, three experts joined Health Wonk Shop series moderator Larry Levitt in an hour-long discussion of health care affordability. During the discussion, panelists considered affordability from a variety of perspectives, including how to define affordability and the question of affordability for whom, how to measure it, and what can be done to address affordability and the underlying cost of health care.

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  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – June 2009

    Poll Finding

    The June Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds remarkable stability in public opinion on health reform as Congressional committees begin to hone in on the details of their health reform bills and debate intensifies. A solid majority of the American people continue to believe that health reform is more important than ever given the country’s economic problems. A solid majority of the American people continue to believe that health reform is more important than ever given…

  • Pulling it Together: The “Third School” for Controlling Health Care Costs?

    Perspective

    For as long as I have been in the field, there have been two dominant schools of thought about how to control health care costs. One school, The Regulators, believed that the best way to slow increasing costs was to control the total resources going into the health care system: putting limits on the supply of medical professionals, technology and facilities; setting payment rates; or putting enough purchasing power in the hands of government to…

  • The Role of Independent Commissions in Controlling Costs and Enhancing Value: International Lessons

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Commonwealth Fund co-sponsored this briefing to examine the quasi-governmental authorities that Germany, the Netherlands and France have established to control health care costs, oversee quality, and regulate insurance and provider payment. How and why have these quasi-governmental authorities come into being? What is their scope of power, and the mechanism they provide for bringing stakeholders together in health care decision making? What are the respective roles of government…

  • Health Affairs Article: The Growth In Cost Per Case Explains Far More Of US Health Spending Increases Than Rising Disease Prevalence

    Report

    Health Affairs Article: The Growth In Cost Per Case Explains Far More Of U.S. Health Spending Increases Than Rising Disease Prevalence This article examines national health spending across an all-inclusive set of diagnostic categories and medical conditions between 1996 and 2006, focusing on trends in cost of care per case and treated prevalence—or, the number of people receiving treatment for a particular condition. It also presents initial estimates of the impact of clinical prevalence on…

  • Workers and their Health Plans: Free to Choose?

    Other Post

    This article, which appeared in the Jan/Feb 2002 issue of the journal Health Affairs, examines the availability of health plan choice for employees. After reviewing previous research and providing information on the data set employed, the authors, Tom Rice, Jon Gabel, Larry Levitt and Samantha Hawkins, examine changes in the extent of health plans choice over the past decade and the choices available to workers in 2001. Note: This publication is no longer in circulation.…

  • The Development of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising Regulation

    Other Post

    This article, which appears in the Food and Drug Law Journal, vol. 57, no. 3, 2002, pp. 423-444 was based on a report written by F.B. Palumbo and C.D. Mullins at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Center on Drugs and Public Policy and funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The article provides an historical overview and current U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation of advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers. The article also…

  • HIV Capitation Risk Adjustment:  Conference Report

    Report

    HIV Capitation Risk Adjustment: Conference Report This report provides an overview of conference proceedings which focused on developing managed care reimbursement strategies that will ensure quality care for people living with HIV and fair compensation for those providing care. Report: HIV Capitation Risk Adjustment: Conference Report

  • Pulling It Together: Critical Path To Health Reform: Stage One

    Perspective

    Will there be a big debate about health reform in the general election? If there is it will elevate the issue further, engage the public, and create momentum and a mandate for action by a new President and Congress. If, however, the debate about health is tepid or health is eclipsed by other issues such as the economy and Iraq, momentum could falter. One measure of the level of debate will be whether or not…

  • Pulling it Together from Drew Altman: Multiple Agendas for Controlling Health Care Costs

    Perspective

    In what would be a domestic policy trifecta, we may be headed for interconnected big debates about economic recovery, entitlement programs and health reform. A core issue in the entitlement and health reform debates is the problem of rising health care costs. President Obama, now apparently fully briefed on the economic, budget and health reform realities he faces, is talking conspicuously about hard choices that may lie ahead. In a short period of time the…

  • Pulling it Together: The Health Care Industry’s Second Voluntary Effort

    Perspective

    The announcement that health care industry groups plan to put on the table voluntarily a package of proposals to shave $2 trillion off the rate of increase in health spending over the next ten years immediately conjures up the image of the Voluntary Effort or VE launched with similar fanfare in the Carter administration.  Back then the industry used the VE to fend off Jimmy Carter's efforts to aggressively control the costs of hospital care…