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KFF/AP Survey Probes Rural Voters’ Increasing Anxieties About the Rising Cost of Living, Including Health Costs, Heading into the Midterm Elections

The KFF/AP Rural Voters Survey examines the views and political priorities of voters living in rural areas across the United States ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The survey gauges rural voters’ top election issues, growing struggles with cost of living and health care costs, as well as views on the Trump administration’s health care policies.

Health System Tracker

How TrumpRx Brand-Name Drug Prices Compare

TrumpRx prices for brand-name drugs are about as likely to be higher as lower compared to average prices in other wealthy countries, according to an analysis that compares 32 brand-name drugs.

The MIDTERMS

“...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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  • No, Medicaid Isn’t Broken

    From Drew Altman

    With Medicaid about to be a focal point of debate in the Senate, Drew Altman's Axios column looks at why the idea that the program is broken is more urban legend than fact.

  • Trends in Overall and Non-COVID-19 Hospital Admissions

    Issue Brief

    This brief shows trends in hospital admissions during the coronavirus pandemic. Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November 2020 as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic.

  • Where Do Americans Get Vaccines and How Much Does It Cost to Administer Them?

    Issue Brief

    A new issue brief shows where Americans typically get flu vaccines in the U.S. and how much it costs to administer flu and other vaccines. Among the analysis' findings: while most people get flu vaccines at a doctor’s office or retail health clinic, White people are more likely than Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian or Alaska Native adults to get vaccinated through a retail pharmacy or store - a discrepancy could have implications for…

  • Analysis: Spending on Health Care Would Drop by an Estimated $352 Billion in 2021 if Private Insurance Used Medicare Rates to Reimburse Hospitals and Other Health Care Providers

    News Release

    Total health care spending for people with private health insurance would be an estimated $352 billion lower in 2021 if private insurers used Medicare rates to pay hospitals and other health care providers, rather than the substantially higher rates they currently pay, a new KFF analysis finds. That would represent a 41 percent decrease from the $859 billion in projected health care spending for people with private insurance this year. The resulting savings would be…

  • Most Insurers Participating in the Marketplaces Don’t Expect COVID to Affect Their 2022 Costs

    News Release

    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 insurers’ preliminary rate filings in 13 states and the District of Columbia reveals that most expect health utilization patterns to return to their pre-pandemic levels…

  • Most private insurers are no longer waiving cost-sharing for COVID-19 treatment

    Issue Brief

    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.

  • Unvaccinated COVID patients cost the U.S. health system billions of dollars

    Issue Brief

    This updated analysis for the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker estimates that the preventable costs of treating unvaccinated patients in hospitals total $13.8 billion during the six-month period from June through November when the delta variant led to a surge in admissions.