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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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How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

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On Tuesday, July 21, three experts joined Health Wonk Shop series moderator Larry Levitt in an hour-long discussion of health care affordability. During the discussion, panelists considered affordability from a variety of perspectives, including how to define affordability and the question of affordability for whom, how to measure it, and what can be done to address affordability and the underlying cost of health care.

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  • Women who Give Birth Incur Nearly $19,000 in Additional Health Costs, Including $2,854 More that They Pay Out of Pocket

    News Release

    The health care costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth average almost $19,000, including $2,854 paid out-of-pocket, a new KFF analysis of large employers’ insurance claims finds. Unlike other analyses that examine costs of specific pregnancy-related services, such as a vaginal or cesarean delivery, this new analysis compares three years of health care claims for reproductive-aged women who gave birth to claims for women who had not given birth. The analysis finds women who give birth…

  • ACA’s Maximum Out-of-Pocket Limit Is Growing Faster Than Wages

    Issue Brief

    This analysis finds that the ACA’s maximum out-of-pocket limit is likely to grow faster than wages and salaries, and is also expected to grow faster than the maximum out-of-pocket limit for Health Savings Account (HSA)-qualified health plans.

  • Vaccines Are Free. Covid Care Is Not. Who Should Pay?

    Perspective

    In this commentary for Barron's, Cynthia Cox explores the impact to the American public as the U.S. health insurance system adjusts to the COVID-19 pandemic. She uses the experience of the past year and a half to raise questions about broader issues of fairness in the distribution of health care costs in the country.

  • How Marketplace Costs and Premiums will Change if Rescue Plan Subsidies Expire

    Policy Watch

    In this Policy Watch we explore the potential impact of the expiration of the American Rescue Plan Act’s enhanced financial help and new eligibility for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance Marketplace federal subsidies. While the COVID-19 relief legislation passed earlier this year provides greater subsidy assistance through 2022, Democrats in Congress are currently considering making the temporary federal help permanent or extending it as part of their planned budget reconciliation legislation.

  • The Language of Health Care Reform

    Perspective

    Published in the Jan. 19 edition of JAMA, this article from KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy Larry Levitt lays out the major health policy challenges that will confront President-elect Biden and potential approaches to major reform.While a big reform debate may not be likely this year, one is likely coming as the nation will need to confront much higher costs than in other high-income countries, worse outcomes in many cases, tens of millions…

  • 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…

  • Section 2: Page One

    Other Post

    Although nearly all large firms (200 or more workers) offer health benefits, all small firms (3-199 workers) are only about half as likely as all large firms to offer coverage (Exhibit 2.2). Annual changes in the offer rate over the last several years have been small; however, the cumulative result is a statistically significant drop in the percentage of firms offering health benefits since 2001. This change is driven primarily by a decrease of five…