Home Health Costs Topics

Health Costs

The MIDTERMS

“...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

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.

Latest News

More KFF Health News

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

Stay informed.

Get KFF's latest on Health Costs

View the Latest: Health Costs

Filter

List Grid

1,501 - 1,510 of 1,603 Results

  • Emergency Departments Under Growing Pressure

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief relies on interviews with practicing clinicians to explore the impact of the recession on hospital emergency departments that are under growing pressure as patient volume increases, health coverage declines and medical costs present new challenges to unemployed families. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • Coping with Fragmented Payment in the Real World

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and The Commonwealth Fund sponsored this briefing which focused on three communities that have reformed and harmonized health care payments across payers to improve care: a New York health center that serves a low income population; a Colorado community that pools money from public and private sources to provide care for all patients; and the State of Maryland, which has been using an all payer hospital rate setting system for…

  • Health Care After the Supreme Court Decision: What’s Next?

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the health reform law. Panelists explore such questions as: What does the court's ruling mean for those without health insurance? Will states that choose to participate in the Medicaid expansion be ready to cover nearly all non-disabled adults under age 65 with household incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level as…

  • 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…

  • Health Affairs Article: From ‘Soak The Rich’ To ‘Soak The Poor: Recent Trends In Hospital Pricing

    Report

    Health Affairs Article: From 'Soak The Rich' To 'Soak The Poor': Recent Trends In Hospital Pricing The May-June 2007 issue of Health Affairs features a Foundation-supported study on recent trends in hospital pricing, including comparisons of rates charged to self-pay patients versus those with insurance coverage. The article also examies three specific policy options that could lower the markups for self-pay patients: a voluntary effort by hospitals, litigation, and legislation Health Affairs article "From 'Soak…

  • Designing a Medicare Drug Discount Card: Implications of Policy Choices for Medicare Beneficiaries and Plan Sponsors

    Report

    This report analyzes key issues surrounding the implementation of a Medicare-endorsed prescription drug discount card program. Medicare prescription drug discount cards have been proposed as a short-term strategy for lowering prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. The report considers the implications for both discount card sponsors and beneficiaries of alternative program designs, including such features as the annual lock-in for consumers, exclusive formularies, providing comparative information to consumers about drug prices and discounts, administration of…

  • Key Findings: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 — March 2007

    Poll Finding

    This document presents key findings from the first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008, which is tracking changes in the saliency of health as a political and policy priority, what the public’s priorities are for a health reform plan and whether any candidates are breaking through with the public with their health reform plans.  Key Findings (.pdf)

  • Closing the Long-Term Care Funding Gap: The Challenge of Private Long-Term Care Insurance

    Issue Brief

    This policy brief from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examines the fundamentals of private long-term care insurance. It describes the results of a study exploring how consumers buy policies, how much policies cost and how they work, and what regulations exist to protect consumers. It also discusses some key challenges that policymakers face when considering whether to enlarge the role of private long-term care insurance in financing long-term care. Policy Brief (.pdf)

  • Pulling it Together: The Sleeper in Health Reform

    Perspective

    The health reform legislation currently being crafted on Capitol Hill is undeniably complex.  To oversimplify slightly it can be boiled down into four parts: coverage (subsidies for private coverage and Medicaid expansions); delivery and payment reforms; insurance market reforms and regulations; and prevention, with each broad category containing a range of specific policy proposals and ideas. There’s been a lot of discussion so far about coverage expansions and how to pay for them, as well…

  • Assessing the Risk of Becoming Uninsured After Leaving a Job: A Look at the Data

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet examines the impact of unemployment on health insurance coverage by using data from 2004 to 2007 (before the current recession) to assess the increased risk of becoming uninsured among those who are no longer employed. It finds that more than one-third of individuals who stopped working and left a job that previously provided them with employer-sponsored health insurance became uninsured for six consecutive months or more after leaving their job. By comparison,…