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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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  • Changes in Health Insurance Coverage, 2007-2008: Early Impact of the Recession

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief examines trends in health insurance coverage from 2007 to 2008, a period marked by the start of a deep recession. It finds that the share of the nonelderly population covered by employer-provided insurance declined, the share covered by public programs increased and the number of uninsured people continued to rise. Notably, the economic downturn affected health insurance coverage differently for adults compared to children. The increase of 1.5 million in the number…

  • Briefing Examines High Medicare Spending for Beneficiaries in Long-Term Care

    Event Date:
    Event

    These three reports examine the relatively high use of hospital and other Medicare-covered services and the associated costs of medical care for Medicare beneficiaries who live in nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities. They also explore the potential for delivery system reforms to improve quality and reduce costs. Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long-Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality…

  • Health Care Costs: A Primer

    Issue Brief

    This primer on health care spending in the United States reviews the growth in health care spending since 1970 and the impact of health care costs on families and employers.

  • National Health Expenditures per Capita, 1990-2023

    Feature

    National Health Expenditures per Capita, 1960-2023-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (Historical data from National Health Expenditures by type of service and source of funds, file nhe12.zip; Projected data from NHE Historical and projections 1965-2023, file nhe65-23.zip).

  • Percent Annual Increase in National Health Expenditures (NHE) per Capita vs. Increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI), 1980-2012

    Feature

    Percent Annual Increase in National Health Expenditures (NHE) per Capita vs. Increase in Consumer Price Index (CPI), 1980-2012-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (see Historical; National Health Expenditures by type of service and source of funds; file nhe12.zip), and CPI data from Bureau of Labor Statistics at ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt (All Urban Consumers, All Items, 1982-1984=100,…

  • Relative Contributions of Different Types of Health Services to Total Growth in National Health Expenditures, 2002-2012

    Feature

    Relative Contributions of Different Types of Health Services to Total Growth in National Health Expenditures, 2002-2012-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (see Historical; National Health Expenditures by type of service and source of funds, CY 1960-2012; file nhe2012.zip). 

  • Average Annual Percentage Change in National Spending for Selected Health Services, 2002-2012

    Feature

    Average Annual Percentage Change in National Spending for Selected Health Services, 2002-2012-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (see Historical; National Health Expenditures by type of service and source of funds, CY 1960-2012; file nhe2012.zip). 

  • Net Cost of Private Health Insurance, Including Administrative Costs, per Person Covered, 1987-2012

    Feature

    Net Cost of Private Health Insurance, Including Administrative Costs, per Person Covered, 1987-2012-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at  http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (see Historical; National Expenditures by type of service and source of funds, CY1960-2012, file nhe2012.zip, Total Admin. & Total Net Cost of Hlth Insurance Exp, Pvt Health Insurance); and private health insurance enrollment data from Centers for…

  • How High Drug Prices Weigh on the Sickest Americans

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman explores the data behind public concern about prescription drug costs and highlights that the people most in need are the most burdened by the problem.

  • Two Substantive Sides to Debate Over Obamacare’s ‘Cadillac Tax’

    News Release

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman says the debate about whether to keep or repeal the Cadillac tax is more than a debate between sound policy and good politics, there are strong substantive arguments on both sides. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.