Health Costs

Affordability and Spending

Our Darwinian Approach to Health Care Costs

Our Darwinian Approach to Health Care Costs

In his latest column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman presents his Venn diagram of health care cost problems and shows how, in our fragmented health system, reducing one health cost problem often makes another worse. "...Reducing health care costs has become a Darwinian game; everyone wants to reduce health care costs and spending – their own, often at the expense of someone else."

Affordable Care Act

An image of text is an excerpt form Jared Ortaliza's quick take which reads, "Data currently being released represent Open Enrollment ACA Marketplace plan selections, or how many people have signed up for or been automatically renewed into 2026 coverage. These data do not necessarily translate to enrollments. That is because people who have selected a plan or been automatically renewed may not ultimately choose to pay for their coverage, thus “effectuating” their enrollment."

ACA Signups Are Down, But Still an Incomplete Picture

Data currently being released represent Open Enrollment ACA Marketplace plan selections, or how many people have signed up for or been automatically renewed into 2026 coverage. These data do not necessarily translate to enrollments. That is because people who have selected a plan or been automatically renewed may not ultimately choose to pay for their coverage, thus “effectuating” their enrollment.

KEY RESOURCES
  • Health Policy 101: Costs and Affordability

    This Health Policy 101 chapter explores trends in health care costs in the U.S. and the factors that contribute to this spending. It also examines how health care spending varies and the impact on affordability and people's overall financial vulnerability.  


  • Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

    This data note reviews our recent polling data that finds that Americans struggle to afford many aspects of health care, including disproportionate shares of uninsured adults, Black and Hispanic adults and those with lower incomes.

  • National Health Spending Explorer

    This interactive Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker tool allows users to examine five decades worth of data on health expenditures by federal and local governments, private insurers, and individuals.

  • Polling on Prescription Drugs and Their Prices

    This chart collection draws on recent KFF poll findings to provide an in-depth look at the public’s attitudes toward prescription drugs and their prices. Results include Americans’ opinions on drug affordability, pharmaceutical companies, and various potential measures that could lower prices.

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991 - 1,000 of 1,548 Results

  • Dementia and Medicare Managed Care: A Growing Challenge for Health Plans

    Report

    The American Bar Association Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly explored the views of Medicare HMOs on enrolling and delivering services to Medicare beneficiaries with dementia. The Commission conducted detailed interviews with professionals at eight diverse Medicare+Choice organizations.

  • Medicaid and Managed Care

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet provides an overview of the Medicaid program's increasing reliance on managed care to deliver services.

  • Recent Attitudes Towards Patients Rights and Managed Care

    Report

    Newly released survey findings show continued public support for patient protections, including the right to sue health plans, but that support erodes if people believe that the cost of health insurance may increase or that companies might stop offering health coverage to their workers.

  • The Working Uninsured in California and the US

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief, prepared by Linda Blumberg and Len Nichols of the Urban Institute, examines the factors contributing to the disproportionately high rates of uninsurance among California's workers compared to the

  • Health News Index – September/October 2001

    Poll Finding

    Health News Index September/October, 2001 The September/October 2001 edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Health News Index includes questions about major health stories covered in the news, including reports about rising health insurance premiums and Americans most important sources for health news and information.

  • Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace 2002

    Report

    This chartbook provides information on key trends in the health care marketplace including health spending, the structure of the health care marketplace, and health plan and provider relationships. It highlights data on health plan enrollment, premiums, and benefits, and the implications of health market trends for consumers and the safety net. Chartbook (.

  • A Study of Media Coverage of Health Policy 1997-2000

    Poll Finding

    The debate over President Clinton's national health care reform plan put health care policy at the forefront of the national agenda in 1993 and 1994. After the end of that debate, it remained to be seen whether or not health policy would hold the media's and the public s interest to the same degree.