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The MIDTERMS

Democrats Hold a Nearly 2-to-1 Advantage Over Republicans on Handling the Cost of Health Care

Poll: Cost of Health Care and Gas Top Voters’ Midterm Concerns; Democrats Hold Significant Advantage on Health Care Costs and Cost of Living 

With the 2026 midterms about a month away, health care costs remain tied with gas as voters’ top midterm concerns and the Democrats hold a clear edge over the Republicans Party on who voters trust to handle many top electoral issues, including the cost of health care and the cost of living. Two-thirds of U.S. adults now favor Medicare-for-all, a new high in KFF Polling, but support shifts when competing claims from critics and proponents are heard.

New and noteworthy

Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

This data note reviews our recent polling data that finds that many Americans struggle to afford many aspects of health care, including disproportionate shares of uninsured adults, Black and Hispanic adults and those with lower incomes.

Health System Tracker

Is This A Healthcare Economy?

Health care employment has grown faster than other sectors of the economy, with jobs in physician offices, hospitals, outpatient care centers, home health, and other settings increasing over the past year even as the rest of the job market plateaued. 

Cumulative percent change in health sector and non-health sector employment, January 1990 - August 2026

What Are the Recent Trends in Health Sector Employment

Health care employment continues to grow even as hiring across other sectors has plateaued. The health sector added nearly 379,000 jobs over the past year, a 2% increase, compared with just 0.2% growth in other non-farm employment, with outpatient care among the fastest-growing health care settings.

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.

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  • Medicaid and Managed Care

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet provides an overview of the Medicaid program's increasing reliance on managed care to deliver services. Fact Sheet

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — December 2009

    Poll Finding

    The December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds a dip on several measures of public opinion on health care reform. The number of Americans who say they personally will be better off if reform passes fell to 35 percent in December, down from 42 percent last month. Meanwhile, 27 percent say they will be worse off, and 32 percent said they don’t expect to see much of a difference. Similarly, 45 percent say the country would…

  • Pulling It Together: The Repeal Trap?

    Perspective

    Almost a year into an often acrimonious health reform debate, we stand poised for near certain passage of historic health reform legislation. Yet, somewhat perplexingly, there's now talk about whether a law that has not even been enacted might actually be repealed and reporters have been calling asking what the chances of repeal may be. I have a very hard time imagining any scenario for repeal unfolding. Calls for repeal have much to do with…

  • Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins – Chartpack

    Report

    Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins:Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2005 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits - Chartpack This chartpack presents key data from the 2005 Kaiser/Hewitt survey of large businesses that provide retiree health benefits to their workers. Chartpack (.pdf)

  • Changes in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Sponsorship, Eligibility, and Participation: 2001 to 2005, Full Report

    Report

    This report provides a detailed account of how employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) coverage changed between 2001 and 2005, particularly among employees (i.e., workers who are not self-employed). The report begins with a short description of the major forces driving employer-sponsored insurance: changes in the workforce and the rising costs of health insurance over the four year period. Next, the report examines the decline in ESI among employees and the reasons determining whether or not an employee…

  • Maternity Care and Consumer Driven Health Plans

    Event Date:
    Event

    Maternity Care and Consumer-Driven Health Plans With maternity care representing one of the most common and costly medical interventions that women experience, Kaiser and the March of Dimes co-hosted a forum to release new studies that analyze the costs of maternity care and assess coverage under consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs). Kaiser released a new study that compares the out-of-pocket costs of maternity care under CDHPs and traditional health insurance plans. The March of Dimes released…

  • Health Care Reform and the CLASS Act

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief examines the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a component of the health reform law that establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living services and supports that is designed to expand options for people who become functionally disabled and require long-term help. This brief describes the major components of the CLASS program including its financing, eligibility criteria, benefit design and interaction with Medicaid. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • The Sad History of Cost Containment as Told in One Chart

    Other Post

    As the nation once again faces double digit increases in health care costs, the seemingly unanswerable question of how to control the problem has suddenly returned to the nation's radar screen. This analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published in the January 23, 2002 online version of the journal Health Affairs (under Web Exclusives) traces the effectiveness of government and private sector attempts to reign in health care costs over the past three decades and…

  • Quantifying the Effects of Health Insurance Rate Review

    Report

    This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzes the effect of government efforts to ensure that insurance premium increases are justifiable and provide value to consumers and small businesses. Rate review programs require insurers in the small group and individual markets to submit proposed rate increase requests to state or federal regulators, who determine if the requests are reasonable. The report finds that one out of every five requests submitted to states in 2011 resulted…

  • 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