Health Costs

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

U.S. Health Spending Is Expected to Reach $9 Trillion by 2034

How Much is Health Spending Expected to Grow?

This chart collection explores how much health spending is expected to grow in the coming years, with a look at growth in prescription drug spending, out-of-pocket spending, and related trends.

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. 

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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  • 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…

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Health Care Costs

    Other Post

    The September 2012 Visualizing Health Policy  infographic  examines health costs in the United States, including how costs have changed, how they compare to some other countries, and how they impact American families. See the full-size infographic at The Journal of the American Medical Association View the related Slideshow Visualizing Health Policy is a monthly infographic series produced in partnership with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Each month's infographic is freely available on JAMA’s website…

  • 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey

    Report

    This annual survey of employers provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage, including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, and other relevant information. The survey continues to document employer’s implementation of health reform with question on the percent of firms with grandfathered health plans and enrollment of adult children due to the new health reform law. The 2012 survey included 3,326 randomly selected public and private firms with three or more employees (2,121…

  • The Alphabet Soup of Care Delivery Transformation

    Event Date:
    Event

    Both the private and public sectors are testing various care delivery transformation models to improve quality, reduce morbidity and mortality, and contain the costs of treatment. The Alliance for Health Reform and WellPoint, Inc. hosted a September 10 briefing to discuss delivery system innovations, Medicare care coordination, and low-spending health care practices. For more information, please visit the Alliance's event page. Full version: Video   Speakers for this session: Ed Howard of the Alliance and…

  • Pulling it Together: Reflections on This Year’s Four Percent Premium Increase

    From Drew Altman

    Our 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey found a 4% increase in premiums this year, continuing the recent trend of moderation in health costs and spending reported in several studies. Double digit increases in premiums were once a common occurrence, but we have not seen any since a 10% increase in 2004 and 13% growth in 2003. Rates of increase in total health spending have been holding at 4-6% per year recently, and per capita spending…

  • Coverage of Colonoscopies Under the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention Benefit

    Report

    The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services such as colonoscopies without any patient cost-sharing. This report finds that confusion over whether colon cancer screenings are preventive care or treatment means patients sometimes receive unexpected bills for the procedure. The report examines cost-sharing practices for colorectal screenings through interviews with experts and officials in the medical and insurance industries. This report was co-authored by The Kaiser Family Foundation, American…

  • Oral Health: Putting Teeth into the Health Care System

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored an August 17 briefing to discuss oral health coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). While PPACA ensures dental coverage for children, challenges remain to improve dental health access and coverage for adults. Speakers will explore such questions as: With 15 percent of the U.S. population living in dental “Health Professional Shortage Areas,” how can dental workforce shortages be addressed?…

  • How Five Leading Safety-Net Hospitals Are Preparing For The Challenges and Opportunities of Health Care Reform

    Report

    This study, published in the journal Health Affairs, examines how five leading safety-net hospitals are preparing for major changes expected to result from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including less government support for uncompensated care and the need to compete for newly insured people. The hospitals studied are Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City; Denver Health Medical Center in Colorado; Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas; San Francisco General Hospital in California; and…