Health Costs

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.”

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."

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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  • Education and Health Care Lead Issues on Voters’ Minds for 2000 Election

    Report

    The Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health National Survey on Health Care and the 2000 Elections is a survey of Americans' views on health related issues in the upcoming 2000 elections. Among leading findings, voters cited education and health as top issues on their minds for the upcoming 2000 elections.

  • 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.

  • The Next Big Health-Care Issue

    From Drew Altman

    Drew Altman, in The Wall Street Journal‘s Think Tank, writes that the next big concern for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be how much premiums increase in exchanges for 2015. He discusses the factors to focus on to put this issue in perspective when states report premium increases.

  • Two Substantive Sides to Debate Over Obamacare’s ‘Cadillac Tax’

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman says debate about whether to keep or repeal the Cadillac tax is more than a debate between sound policy and good politics, there are strong substantive arguments on both sides.

  • How Does Cost Affect Access to Care?

    Feature

    This slideshow examines how cost and insurance affects people's access to care, including decisions to forgo or delay needed care and access to a usual source of care.

  • How has health spending changed over time?

    Feature

    This slideshow examines trends in U.S. health spending over time, including the share of household budgets devoted to health expenses and comparisons of out-of-pocket expenditures to money spent on insurance. The data shows that U.S. heath spending outpaced the country's economic growth before slowing in recent years, and that health insurance represents a growing share of total health expenditures, particularly public programs.