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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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  • Section 1: Health Spending and Costs, Including Prescription Drugs

    Other Post

    Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 next > Exhibit 1.1: National Health Expenditures and Their Share of Gross Domestic Product, 1960-2004 Expenditures in the United States on health care were nearly $1.9 trillion in 2004, more than two and a half times the $717 billion spent in 1990, and more than seven times the $255 billion spent in 1980.…

  • Snapshots from the Kitchen Table: Family Budgets and Health Care

    Report

    This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) illustrates the financial struggles of many families in the United States and shows the central role of health care costs and coverage in a household's economic stability. The report, , is based on interviews with 27 families from six cities across the U.S.. It finds pervasive uncertainty over job security and households teetering on the financial brink, stretching to pay for…

  • Pulling it Together: This Could Be the Next Big Issue in Health Reform

    Perspective

    No, this is not about “death panels.” The town hall meetings.  The media coverage of the town hall meetings.  Media polls about how the American people feel about the town hall meetings.  And even the media myth busting and fact checking about the most extreme claims made at the town hall meetings and the Administration's daily efforts to set the record straight.  All these things have focused attention on a few hot button issues that…

  • Current Trends and Future Outlook for Retiree Health Benefits:  Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2004 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits

    Other Post

    Current Trends and Future Outlook for Retiree Health Benefits: Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2004 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits A new survey of large employers finds businesses and retirees experienced double-digit increase in retiree health costs, with further increases expected in 2005. The survey also includes an early look at employers' responses to the new Medicare drug law. News Release Report - Interactive online version and downloadable chapters Chartpack Materials From the December 14, 2004…

  • Prescription Drug Spending Under The MMA: Modeling The Impact On Out-of-Pocket Costs

    Event Date:
    Event

    This report projects the impact of the new Medicare drug benefit on out-of-pocket spending for people who enroll in 2006. The analysis is based on a model developed by the Actuarial Research Corporation for the Kaiser Family Foundation. The model generally conforms to the Congressional Budget Office’s assumptions and projections about Medicare drug benefit spending and participation rates for the new benefit and for the low-income subsidy. The report was released at a briefing in…

  • The Adequacy of Health Insurance

    Event Date:
    Event

    Testimony by Diane Rowland, executive vice president and executive director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, at a congressional hearing, titled “Addressing Underinsurance in National Health Reform,” held Feb. 24, 2009, by a special task force of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Rowland discussed the status of health insurance coverage in America and the gaps and limits to coverage that leave millions of Americans poorly protected…

  • Medicare Advantage 2012 Data Spotlight: Enrollment Market Update

    Report

    This data spotlight examines the growth in private Medicare Advantage plan enrollment in 2012, with a record 13 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled as of March, representing 27 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries. Enrollment jumped by more than 1 million enrollees from the previous year and increased in every state except Alaska and New Hampshire. Medicare Advantage plan enrollees generally must pay Medicare's standard Part B premium, but more than half do not pay any additional…

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

    Report

    Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins:Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2005 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits - Report This report assesses how large businesses that provide retiree health benefits to their workers are responding to the new Medicare drug benefit in 2006, their plans for the future, and the way these responses affect retirees. It also looks at the rising costs and changing benefits of retiree health coverage overall in 2005. Full…

  • Pulling it Together: Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks

    Perspective

    Way back in the eighties when I was Human Services Commissioner in New Jersey, I established something called the Garden State Health Plan (GSHP).  It was the first — and I think the only — federally qualified state-run HMO for Medicaid beneficiaries.  One goal of the GSHP was to reallocate the Medicaid dollar, giving more to primary care physicians who at the time were paid $9 for a general office visit, and a little less…

  • Pulling it Together: A Holiday Reminder on the Economy and Health Care

    Perspective

    With so much of the focus on the political dynamics of the health reform debate and a few hot button issues, I wonder if we have lost track of what propelled health care to the top domestic issue in the first place—people’s concerns about paying for health care in the middle of a deep recession. This gave health greater traction as a national issue and brought us our best chance at national health reform legislation…