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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?

Event Date:

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.

Health System Tracker

Among adults 18 - 64 with private insurance, mental health and substance use treatment accounted for 10% of all overnight stays at hospitals or other medical facilities in 2023.

Cost and Utilization of Inpatient Mental Health and Substance Use Treatment This analysis describes the most common diagnoses for inpatient treatment and total associated costs.

What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage? Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, but its reach is uneven.

How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries? The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024 as U.S. mortality dropped.

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.

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  • Online Tools for Consumer-Directed Health Plans

    Event Date:
    Event

    On Jan. 25, 2005, Kaiser Family Foundation hosted a demonstration of the online tools made available to enrollees in consumer-directed health plans. Executives from Humana and Lumenos -- two major firms in the consumer-directed care market -- conducted real-time demonstrations of their consumer web tools to show how enrollees might manage the costs and quality of their care. Consumer-directed, or consumer-driven, health plans are intended to give enrollees a financial stake in their health care…

  • 2003 Health Insurance Survey – Summary and Chartpack

    Report

    The 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation Health Insurance Survey examines the public's level of satisfaction with their insurance coverage, their expectations of health insurance, the role of costs and other factors in health insurance decision-making, and attitudes toward employer-sponsored coverage. It also explores people's opinions about several alternative health insurance plans that are currently under consideration and explores how they might respond to these new options. Summary and Chartpack (.pdf)

  • New Analysis Highlights Variations and Trends in Medicare Beneficiaries’ Out-of-Pocket Spending

    News Release

    A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis and chartbook break down what beneficiaries with traditional Medicare pay for their health care, including insurance premiums, and costs for medical and long-term care services. The analysis highlights the significant variations in what people pay based on the services they use, and their age, gender and other characteristics, and highlights trends in out-of-pocket spending. Based on the latest available data from a nationally representative survey of people on Medicare,…

  • 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.

  • Poll: Most Americans Don’t Realize How Dramatically the Medicare-for-all Proposals Would Revamp the Nation’s Health Care System

    News Release

    As Congress and the Democratic presidential candidates continue to discuss Medicare-for-all and other proposals to expand public health coverage, most Americans know little about how the leading Medicare-for-all proposals would reshape the way all Americans get and pay for health care. This month’s KFF Health Tracking Poll probes the public’s awareness of key elements of proposals to create a national health plan, including the leading Medicare-for-all bills introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila…

  • How Many Medicare Part D Enrollees Had High Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs in 2017?

    Issue Brief

    The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit has helped improve the affordability of medications for people with Medicare. Yet Part D enrollees can face relatively high out-of-pocket costs because the Part D benefit does not have a hard cap on out-of-pocket spending. This analysis presents the latest data on out-of-pocket drug spending among Medicare Part D enrollees without low-income subsidies who have costs above the catastrophic coverage threshold.

  • The Real Cost of Health Care: Interactive Calculator Estimates Both Direct and Hidden Household Spending

    News Release

    A new interactive tool from KFF estimates total household health spending for individuals and families in the U.S., including costs that are often less visible to consumers. Users can generate scenarios based on family size, income level, insurance source, and health status. In addition to estimating direct costs like deductibles and copayments, the tool highlights indirect spending on health care, such as state and federal taxes paid to fund public programs like Medicare and Medicaid,…