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KFF Health Tracking Poll: MAHA and the Midterms

Chemical food additive and pesticide concerns associated with the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement are shared broadly across the public. But when it comes to voters, health care costs are a higher priority and bigger motivator, even among MAHA supporters, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. When asked to identify their most important health priority for government to address, far more MAHA-supporting voters identify lowering the cost of health care (42%) than other issues more closely associated with the movement.

Affordable care act

ACA Marketplace Survey Feature Image - Website

Cost Concerns and Coverage Changes: A Follow-Up Survey of ACA Marketplace Enrollees

This KFF survey is a follow-up survey of adults who had ACA Marketplace insurance in 2025. The survey examines the cost concerns and coverage changes of Marketplace enrollees following the end of the enhanced premium tax credits and finds that half of returning enrollees say their health care costs are “a lot higher” and most expect to cut back on basic household expenses to afford coverage.

Health System Tracker

What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage? Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, but its reach is uneven.

How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries? The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024 as U.S. mortality dropped.

How Does Cost Affect Access to Health Care? In 2024, about 1 in 6 adults reported delaying or not getting healthcare due to cost, including medical or mental health care.

How Does Health Spending in the U.S. Compare to Other Countries? While the U.S. still spends the most in total dollars, eight OECD nations had a higher percentage increase in per-person health spending in 2024.

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  • Why Some Employers are Turning to Progressive Health Benefits

    From Drew Altman

    In this Axios column, Drew Altman examines the status of progressive health benefits (health benefits linked to wage levels) and their pros and cons at a time when employee health costs are rising and wages are flat.

  • Poll: Two-thirds of Voters Say a Candidate’s Position on Pre-existing Conditions is Important to their Vote, More than Say the Same about Drug Costs, ACA Repeal or Medicare-for-All

    News Release

    About two-thirds (65%) of voters say a candidate’s support for continued protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is either the “single most important factor” or “very important” to their vote in the upcoming midterms elections, finds the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll. That’s a larger share than says the same about other health care issues, including bringing down prescription drug costs (58%), repealing the Affordable Care Act (53%), stabilizing the ACA marketplaces (52%), or…

  • An analysis of out-of-network claims in large employer health plans

    Issue Brief

    A new Kaiser Family Foundation brief examines out-of-network claims in large employer plans, and finds that a significant share of inpatient hospital admissions includes bills from out-of-network providers, often leaving patients exposed to "surprise medical bills" and high out-of-pocket costs. The analysis of part of the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, an online information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.

  • Who Gets Unexpected Medical Bills?

    Feature

    Source Kaiser Health Tracking Poll – Late Summer 2018: The Election, Pre-Existing Conditions, and Surprises on Medical Bills

  • Analysis: For Patients with Large Employer Coverage, About 1 in 6 Hospital Stays Includes an Out-of-Network Bill

    News Release

    A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of medical bills from large employer plans finds that a significant share of inpatient hospital admissions includes bills from providers not in the health plan’s networks, generally leaving patients subject to higher cost-sharing and potential additional bills from providers. Almost 18 percent of inpatient admissions result in non-network claims for patients with large employer coverage. Even when enrollees choose in-network facilities, 15 percent of admissions include a bill from…

  • Nursing Labor Markets Tutorial

    Interactive

    This tutorial was produced for kaiserEDU.org, a Kaiser Family Foundation website that ceased production in September 2013. The kaiserEDU.org tutorials are no longer being updated but have been made available on kff.org due to demand by professors who are using the tutorials in class assignments. You may search for other tutorials to view on kff.org. To download this or other tutorials, visit the tutorials archive page.  Slides are available for download using the "Download Slides" link within the…

  • The Real Cost of Health Care: Interactive Calculator Estimates Both Direct and Hidden Household Spending

    News Release

    A new interactive tool from KFF estimates total household health spending for individuals and families in the U.S., including costs that are often less visible to consumers. Users can generate scenarios based on family size, income level, insurance source, and health status. In addition to estimating direct costs like deductibles and copayments, the tool highlights indirect spending on health care, such as state and federal taxes paid to fund public programs like Medicare and Medicaid,…

  • Household Health Spending Calculator

    Interactive

    This interactive tool, updated with 2022 data, helps users understand health care costs vary by family size, income, insurance, and health status. Use the dropdown menus to explore scenarios and trends in household health spending.

  • Analysis Finds that Medications for Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS Are the Costliest Group of Outpatient Prescription Drugs for Medicaid, While Diabetes Drugs Have Posted the Sharpest Rise in Costs 

    News Release

    Antiviral medications, including those that treat hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, cost the Medicaid program more money (before rebates) than any other group of outpatient prescription drugs for each year from 2014 to 2017, according to a new KFF analysis. The analysis of utilization and spending trends finds that antivirals accounted for more than 13 percent of the $63.6 billion in Medicaid outpatient drug spending pre-rebates in 2017 -- a level disproportionate to their utilization and…