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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.”

New and noteworthy

How Unaffordable is Health Care and What Can We Do About It?

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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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  • Health Savings Accounts and High Deductible Health Plans: Are They An Option for Low-Income Families?

    Issue Brief

    Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are a type of medical savings account that allow consumers to save for medical expenses on a tax-fee basis. They are linked with high deductible health plans (HDHPs), and together these insurance and savings options represent a new approach to health care, commonly referred to as consumer-directed care. This brief, based on analyses of available data and research, finds that most low-income families would not benefit from HSA-HDHPs due to an…

  • Illustrating the Potential Impacts of Adverse Selection on Health Insurance Costs in Consumer Choice Models

    Other Post

    Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries  Health spending is rising faster than incomes in most developed countries, which raises questions about how these countries will pay for future health care needs.  The issue may be particularly acute in the United States, which not only spends much more per capita on health care than any other country, but which also has had one of the fastest growth rates in health spending among…

  • National Council of Jewish Women features article on “Diagnosing Women’s Health Care”

    Other Post

    National Council of Jewish Women features article on “Diagnosing Women’s Health Care” Kaiser Vice President and Director of Women's Health Policy, Alina Salganicoff, authored an article titled "Diagnosing Women’s Health Care" featured in the National Council of Jewish Women's magazine, NCJW Journal, volume 29. The article highlights the special challenges that many women face in affording and accessing comprehensive health care in the U.S. It discusses the state of women's health coverage, emerging issues for…

  • Snapshots: Distribution of Out-of-Pocket Spending for Health Care Services

    Issue Brief

    How much people should pay out-of-pocket for health care is a much-debated issue in health policy. New health insurance products with higher out-of-pocket shares are becoming more evident in the private market, and some states are considering ways to increase enrollee financial responsibility in state Medicaid programs.  This paper presents information about current out-of-pocket spending by individuals with the purpose of providing context for future health policy discussions. Current proposals suggest that increasing the amount that…

  • Retired Steelworkers and Their Health Benefits: Results from a 2004 Survey

    Report

    This Kaiser survey report looks at how the bankruptcies of two steel companies, the LTV Corporation and Bethlehem Steel, affected health coverage for the companies' retirees and dependents. The bankruptcies left about 200,000 retirees and spouses without retiree health coverage in 2002 and 2003. The report provides insight into the impact of a tax credit enacted by Congress in 2002 to provide temporary assistance to workers and retirees in "distressed" industries, including the steel industry.…

  • Snapshots: Comparing Projected Growth in Health Care Expenditures and the Economy

    Issue Brief

    The rising cost of health care is much in the news. Health costs continue to grow faster than national income and, despite research indicating that we the get good value for the increased spending, some policy makers and health analysts question whether governments and private employers can continue to finance the level of care that they do today. This paper illustrates the magnitude of savings that would be needed in order to bring health care…

  • Kaiser Health Poll Report Selected Findings on 2006 State of the Union Address and Health Care

    Poll Finding

    A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines what the public took away from President Bush's State of the Union address, finding that the health messages in the speech have yet to register with most Americans. Despite extensive news coverage both before and after the speech giving information about the President's proposals for expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), seventy-one percent of adults have not heard the term "health savings account." Survey…

  • Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins – Chartpack

    Report

    Prospects for Retiree Health Benefits as Medicare Drug Coverage Begins:Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2005 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits - Chartpack This chartpack presents key data from the 2005 Kaiser/Hewitt survey of large businesses that provide retiree health benefits to their workers. Chartpack (.pdf)