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Public Views on Prescription Drug Costs: Regulation, Affordability and TrumpRx

Amid the Trump administration’s focus on lowering prescription drug costs, including its new TrumpRx website, KFF’s Health Tracking Poll finds that most Americans (59%) are worried about affording prescription drugs and support more regulation of prescription drug pricing (72%). Looking ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, the Democratic party currently holds the advantage when it comes to who voters trust to address the cost of health care, including prescription drugs.

Affordable care act

Poll: Health Care Costs, Expiring ACA Tax Credits, and the 2026 Midterms

Heading into this midterm election year, the cost of health care tops the public’s economic anxieties, and more than 4 in 10 voters say the issue will have a major impact on their vote, a new KFF Health Tracking poll finds. Two thirds of public say Congress "did the wrong thing" by not extending ACA enhanced tax credits, but Republicans largely say Congress “did the right thing.”

Health System Tracker

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.

 

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 Do Health Expenditures Vary Across the Population? Five percent of the population made up nearly half of all health spendings, pending an average of $72,918 annually in 2023.

NHE explorer

National Health Spending Explorer: Get up-to-date information on U.S. health spending by federal and local governments, private companies, and individuals.

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  • How Much of the Medicare Spending Slowdown Can be Explained? Insights and Analysis from 2014

    Issue Brief

    This paper identifies and quantifies, to the extent possible, the factors that explain the gap between actual Medicare spending in 2014 and CBO's 2009 projections of what Medicare spending would be this year. The study synthesizes information from a variety of sources and presents new analysis to assess the extent to which lower-than-projected Medicare spending in 2014 can be explained by deliberate policy and program changes, unexpected trends, and other factors.

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Medicare Spending: A Look at Present, Short-Term and Long-Term Trends

    Other Post

    This Visualizing Health Policy infographic with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) provides an overview of Medicare spending trends in the present, short term and long term. In the long term, Medicare spending as a share of the economy is projected to grow, and Medicare is projected to lack sufficient funds to pay all hospital bills beginning in 2030.

  • Medical Debt Among Insured Consumers: The Role of Cost Sharing, Transparency, and Consumer Assistance

    Perspective

    This policy insight examines medical debt among insured consumers, exploring how high cost sharing in health insurance plans can contribute, and explaining how greater transparency could help consumers avoid some financial pitfalls. It also provides an update on provisions of the Affordable Care Act meant to increase health plan transparency and bolster consumer assistance.

  • How Obamacare May Be Holding Down Costs

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column published in Politico, Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman examines the recent historic slowdown in health-care costs and discusses whether Obamacare is a contributing factor.

  • Kaiser Family Foundation/NBC News Survey Questions

    Poll Finding

    The Kaiser Family Foundation partnered with NBC News to ask several survey questions of the U.S. public about their feelings towards the 2010 health care law, as well as their worries about affording health care more generally. These questions were asked as part of the September 2013 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll.

  • 3 Takeaways From the Medicare Trustees Report

    From Drew Altman

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman dives into this week’s release of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report to discuss the good news that may have been missed.