Home Health Costs Topics

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.

Latest News

More KFF Health News

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

View the Latest: Health Costs

Filter

List Grid

1,241-1,250 of 1,622 results

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

    Video

    This Kaiser Family Foundation documentary, “Snapshots from the Kitchen Table: Family Budgets and Health Care,” profiles several American families who are struggling to make ends meet. It depicts the narrow financial ledge on which millions of low- and middle- income working households stand even in normal economic times, and illustrates the central role that health care costs and coverage play in a household’s economic stability. Some of the families profiled have health insurance, others do…

  • Spending To Survive: Cancer Patients Confront Holes in the Health Insurance System

    Event Date:
    Event

    This report highlights the severe challenges cancer patient may face in paying for life-saving care even when they have private health insurance. Jointly authored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society, the report profiles 20 patients and illustrates the potential difficulties people diagnosed with cancer or other serious illnesses have in maintaining affordable health insurance and paying for their health care. The patients in the report and accompanying video were selected to…

  • Pulling it Together from Drew Altman: Multiple Agendas for Controlling Health Care Costs

    Perspective

    In what would be a domestic policy trifecta, we may be headed for interconnected big debates about economic recovery, entitlement programs and health reform. A core issue in the entitlement and health reform debates is the problem of rising health care costs. President Obama, now apparently fully briefed on the economic, budget and health reform realities he faces, is talking conspicuously about hard choices that may lie ahead. In a short period of time the…

  • Next Steps in Covering Uninsured Children: Findings from the Kaiser Survey of Children’s Health Coverage

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief provides key findings from the Kaiser Survey of Children's Health Coverage, including that many low- and middle-income working families with an uninsured child do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. The telephone survey of parents that was conducted in 2007 to learn more about children’s access to coverage and care and the health care cost-related pressures facing their families. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • A Primer on Tax Subsidies for Health Care 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…

  • Cost Sharing for Health Care: France, Germany, and Switzerland

    Issue Brief

    As policymakers in the United States weigh options for reform to the nation’s health care system, the level of cost sharing that consumers face when they receive services covered by their health plans is a major consideration, especially for those with serious health conditions. This background brief authored by Kaiser Family Foundation researchers examines how three European countries – France, Germany, and Switzerland – have dealt with cost sharing in their health systems. While cost…

  • Chartpack — The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress

    Poll Finding

    Chartpack -- The Public's Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress This chartpack provides the key findings from the survey of the public's attitudes regarding the health care agenda for President Obama and the new Congress in 2009. It assesses the relative priority placed on health care by the American public as part of addressing the economic recession and as a large scale reform issue. The public's priorities for health care reform and…

  • Toplines — The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress

    Poll Finding

    Toplines -- The Public's Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress This document contains the detailed toplines from The Public's Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress poll. The poll involved a nationally representative random sample of 1,628 adults ages 18 and older who were interviewed by telephone between December 4 and 14, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For…

  • Pulling It Together: The “R” Word Is Back

    Perspective

    Longer ago than I care to admit, I got my start in health policy at M.I.T. when I wrote a book about health care regulation. The book was about a long forgotten attempt to rationalize the health care system through an elaborate health planning program set up in the seventies under the National Health Planning and Resources Development Act. It established a system of federal, state and regional planning bodies to control health care costs by limiting the supply of…

  • Primers on Key Health Care Topics and Programs

    Issue Brief

    The Kaiser Family Foundation maintains a number of primers providing overviews of key health care programs and issues. Written by Foundation staff, each primer provides key data and information that helps illustrate the topic and its relevance for the nation's health care system. Medicaid: A Primer Medicare: A Primer The Uninsured: A Primer Health Care Costs: A Primer How Private Health Coverage Works: A Primer Mental Health Financing in the United States: A Primer The…