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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.”

Health System Tracker

Small Businesses Could See Double-Digit Premium Increases in 2027, According to Insurers’ Preliminary Rate Filings

Nearly 300 insurers offering offering health coverage to small businesses reported a median proposed premium increase of 14% for next year, according to an analysis of preliminary rate filings from all 50 states and DC.

ACA Marketplace Insurers Are Proposing a Median Premium Increase of About 15% in 2027

ACA Marketplaces insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 15% in 2027, according to an updated analysis of 276 insurers with publicly available filings across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

In 2024, life expectancy in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 79 years but remained years behind the average in comparable countries

Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. increased 0.6 years from 78.4 years in 2023 to 79.0 years in 2024, its highest-ever level. However, the average life expectancy in comparable countries was about 3.7 years longer than in the U.S.

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.

Using claims data from the 2023 Merative MarketScan Commercial Claims Database, this analysis describes the most common diagnoses for inpatient treatment and total associated costs, including patients’ out-of-pocket share.

New and noteworthy

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.

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  • Kaiser December Tracking Poll: Public Remains Divided on Health Reform Law; Significant Number of People Struggle Financially

    Perspective

    As 2010 draws to a close, the latest tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows the public still divided in their views of the health reform law, a sentiment largely unchanged since the law’s enactment in March. Forty-two percent of Americans say they have a generally favorable view of the law, while 41 percent have a generally unfavorable view of it. As the weak economy continues, the survey finds that a significant number of…

  • Trends in Health Insurance Coverage in the U.S.: The Impact of the Economy

    Event Date:
    Event

    The rising number of uninsured, who they are and how they might obtain health insurance coverage were much debated during the consideration and passage of health reform in the last year. Panelists at this briefing examined the recent health insurance coverage numbers and trends, what they mean, who the newly uninsured are and the impact of being uninsured. They also reviewed what states are doing during the current economic climate and how they are preparing…

  • Rate Review: Spotlight on State Efforts to Make Health Insurance More Affordable

    Other Post

    The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates a new federal role to examine “unreasonable increases” in the premiums charged for certain individual and small group health plans. Under the health reform law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work with state insurance departments to conduct an annual review of unreasonable rate increases, and insurers must provide justification for such increases to HHS and to the public via their websites. The…

  • Snapshots: Health Benefit Offer Rates and Employee Earnings

    Issue Brief

    Employer-provided health insurance is the primary source of insurance coverage in the United States, covering almost 160 million people.1 About 90 percent of the non-elderly privately-insured population is covered by employer-sponsored plans, meaning that employer decisions about whether to offer health benefits will influence overall rates of insurance coverage in the United States.  Sixty-nine percent of all firms offered health benefits to their employees in 2010.2 It is well-known that highly-paid workers are more likely to…

  • Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long‐Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality of Care

    Report

    Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long‐Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality of Care This report documents the relatively high rates of hospital stays, emergency room visits and skilled nursing facility admissions among long-term care facility residents. It finds that Medicare per capita spending for Medicare beneficiaries living in nursing homes, assisted-living centers and other long-term care facilities, $14,538 in…

  • Medicare Advantage 2011 Data Spotlight: Plan Availability and Premiums

    Report

      This Medicare Advantage Data Spotlight provides an overview of recent changes made to the Medicare Advantage program and examines trends in plan participation, premiums and certain benefits. About 12 million people, or nearly a quarter of the Medicare population, are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, the privately administered plans that are an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program. The analysis was conducted by a team researchers at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and the Kaiser…

  • To Hospitalize or Not to Hospitalize? Medical Care for Long-Term Care Facility Residents

    Report

    To Hospitalize or Not to Hospitalize? Medical Care for Long-Term Care Facility Residents This report explores factors that appear to drive relatively high rates of hospitalizations, based on interviews with doctors, nursing home staff and families in four cities. Key factors include liability concerns, limited onsite staff capabilities, difficulty reaching residents' physicians for care instructions on nights and weekends, better and more timely access to diagnostic tests in hospitals, and patient preferences. Physicians with patients…

  • Financial Incentives in the Long-Term Care Context: A First Look at Relevant Information

    Report

    Financial Incentives in the Long-Term Care Context: A First Look at Relevant Information This report reviews Medicare's payment policies as they may affect medical care for residents in long-term care environments, including a look at the financial incentives that could play a role in hospital and skilled nursing facility admissions. The report was prepared by Henry Desmarais at Health Policy Alternatives for the Foundation and released at an Oct. 12, 2010, policy briefing. Report (.pdf)

  • Briefing Examines High Medicare Spending for Beneficiaries in Long-Term Care

    Event Date:
    Event

    These three reports examine the relatively high use of hospital and other Medicare-covered services and the associated costs of medical care for Medicare beneficiaries who live in nursing homes and other long-term-care facilities. They also explore the potential for delivery system reforms to improve quality and reduce costs. Medicare Spending and Use of Medical Services for Beneficiaries in Nursing Homes and Other Long-Term Care Facilities: A Potential for Achieving Medicare Savings and Improving the Quality…

  • Pulling it Together: Health Reform’s Six-Month Checkup

    Perspective

    Six months after its enactment, there are two totally different stories to tell about the health-reform law. The public remains split on the law largely along traditional partisan lines. Confusion and misperception are rampant, with more than a third of seniors still thinking the law contains "death panels" (it does not). Yet beneath the political battle lies a success story of early implementation: The federal government that many regard as sluggish and ineffective has turned…