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KFF Health Tracking Poll: Health Care Costs and the Midterms

This KFF poll finds that health care costs continue to top the public’s list of affordability worries, even as concerns about gas prices have risen in recent weeks, with two-thirds of the public expressing worry over affording health care costs. Majorities say health costs will influence their vote this election. Voters favor Democrats on the issue, while Republicans hold an advantage on addressing fraud and abuse.

Affordable care act

ACA Marketplace Survey Feature Image - Website

Cost Concerns and Coverage Changes: A Follow-Up Survey of ACA Marketplace Enrollees

This KFF survey is a follow-up survey of adults who had ACA Marketplace insurance in 2025. The survey examines the cost concerns and coverage changes of Marketplace enrollees following the end of the enhanced premium tax credits and finds that half of returning enrollees say their health care costs are “a lot higher” and most expect to cut back on basic household expenses to afford coverage.

Health System Tracker

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 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 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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  • Visualizing Health Policy: Health Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

    Report

    Related Resources Study Highlights Role of Geography and Plan Shopping Under Medicare Premium Support System Medicare Part D: A First Look at Part D Plan Offerings in 2013 The Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit - An Updated Fact Sheet Online Consumer Guide to Medicare   The latest Visualizing Health Policy infographic is a flowchart illustrating the mechanisms by which people will get health coverage beginning in 2014. Medicare's Role and Future Challenges << Previous Visualizing Health…

  • Health Care on the Brink of the Fiscal Cliff

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation present a November 16 briefing to discuss the components of this key policy crossroads with a particular emphasis on the implications for health programs and the health care industry. Automatic cuts would not apply to Medicaid, but Medicare providers would experience 2 percent payment cuts. The reductions would likely be larger for discretionary health programs, such as those funded as part of the National Institutes…

  • Snapshots: Premiums, Cost-Sharing and Coverage at Public, Private and Non-Profit Firms

    Issue Brief

    There are important differences in the legal organization and mission of different employers in the United States. In addition to collecting information about premiums and employee cost sharing, the 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey asked respondents to characterize their ownership structure. Respondents were asked to describe their organization as either a "private firm, including publicly traded companies and privately owned businesses," "a public firm, such as a state or local government agency," or as a "non-profit, such as a…

  • Snapshots: The Prevalence and Cost of Deductibles in Employer Sponsored Insurance

    Issue Brief

    Over the past several years enrollees in employer-sponsored health plans have contributed more towards their care through the use of increased cost sharing.  The growth in deductibles is one of the more visible increases in employee cost sharing. A deductible is an amount that must be paid out-of-pocket by an enrollee before some or all services are covered by their health plan.  Health plans may impose deductibles on specific services, such as outpatient surgery or…

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Health Care in the 2012 Election

    Other Post

    The October 2012 Visualizing Health Policy infographic provides a snapshot of how health care–related issues are shaping the 2012 presidential election, including the percentage of Democrats, Republicans, and independents who named health care or the economy as the issue that is most important in determining their vote for President; which health care issues are considered most important by Americans; how health care has compared with the economy and other issues as the most important issue…

  • Quantifying the Effects of Health Insurance Rate Review

    Report

    This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzes the effect of government efforts to ensure that insurance premium increases are justifiable and provide value to consumers and small businesses. Rate review programs require insurers in the small group and individual markets to submit proposed rate increase requests to state or federal regulators, who determine if the requests are reasonable. The report finds that one out of every five requests submitted to states in 2011 resulted…

  • Visualizing Health Policy: Health Care Costs

    Other Post

    The September 2012 Visualizing Health Policy  infographic  examines health costs in the United States, including how costs have changed, how they compare to some other countries, and how they impact American families. See the full-size infographic at The Journal of the American Medical Association View the related Slideshow Visualizing Health Policy is a monthly infographic series produced in partnership with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Each month's infographic is freely available on JAMA’s website…

  • 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey

    Report

    This annual survey of employers provides a detailed look at trends in employer-sponsored health coverage, including premiums, employee contributions, cost-sharing provisions, and other relevant information. The survey continues to document employer’s implementation of health reform with question on the percent of firms with grandfathered health plans and enrollment of adult children due to the new health reform law. The 2012 survey included 3,326 randomly selected public and private firms with three or more employees (2,121…