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

1,561 - 1,570 of 1,603 Results

  • Medicaid’s Most Costly Outpatient Drugs

    Issue Brief

    Using Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data, this brief presents the 50 most costly drugs before rebates used by the Medicaid program over the January 2014 through June 2015 period. It then examines reasons why these drugs are so costly; explores case studies on opioids, hepatitis C drugs, and the drug Abilify; and considers policy implications.

  • On Health Care Issues, Voters Give Hillary Clinton a Substantial Edge Over Donald Trump  

    News Release

    Most Americans Worry about Large Number of Zika Cases in U.S. Over Next Year While the public tilts narrowly toward unfavorable views of the Affordable Care Act, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton holds a clear advantage on health care issues over presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump as the 2016 national political conventions approach, and voters generally, including independents, favor Democrats on health issues, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds. When asked which of the…

  • Analysis Finds Specialty Drugs Rank High Among Medicaid’s Most Costly Outpatient Drugs

    News Release

    Costly specialty drugs, such as those used to treat Hepatitis C and HIV, are among the most costly medications in state Medicaid programs, chiefly because of their high prices for a course of treatment, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of Medicaid’s most costly outpatient drugs. Abilify, an antiphsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was the most costly drug in state Medicaid programs overall in the new analysis, which…

  • Average Annual Workplace Family Health Premiums Rise Modest 3% to $18,142 in 2016; More Workers Enroll in High-Deductible Plans With Savings Option Over Past Two Years

    News Release

      Few Employers Report Changing Workers’ Hours Due to ACA’s Employer Requirements; Those That Do Are More Likely to Shift Workers to Full-Time Status Menlo Park, Calif. – Annual family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose an average of 3 percent to $18,142 this year, a modest increase at a time when workers’ wages (2.5%) and inflation (1.1%) also grew modestly, according to the benchmark Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) 2016 Employer Health Benefits Survey…

  • Poll: Most Americans Don’t Realize How Dramatically the Medicare-for-all Proposals Would Revamp the Nation’s Health Care System

    News Release

    As Congress and the Democratic presidential candidates continue to discuss Medicare-for-all and other proposals to expand public health coverage, most Americans know little about how the leading Medicare-for-all proposals would reshape the way all Americans get and pay for health care. This month’s KFF Health Tracking Poll probes the public’s awareness of key elements of proposals to create a national health plan, including the leading Medicare-for-all bills introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Pramila…

  • How Many Medicare Part D Enrollees Had High Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs in 2017?

    Issue Brief

    The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit has helped improve the affordability of medications for people with Medicare. Yet Part D enrollees can face relatively high out-of-pocket costs because the Part D benefit does not have a hard cap on out-of-pocket spending. This analysis presents the latest data on out-of-pocket drug spending among Medicare Part D enrollees without low-income subsidies who have costs above the catastrophic coverage threshold.

  • Uwe Reinhardt - Event - Page

    Uwe Reinhardt’s New Book Priced Out: His Health Policy Ideas in Today’s Debates

    Event Date:
    Event

    Dr. Uwe Reinhardt is a giant in the health policy field who advised policymakers and influenced debates about the nation’s health system before his passing in 2017. His recently released last book, Priced Out: The Ethics and Economics of Health Care, completed by his wife and longtime collaborator Tsung-Mei (May) Cheng gives us the gift of further insights into the U.S. health system and many issues that the country is debating right now, ranging from health price…

  • Analysis: ‘Cadillac Tax’ on High-Cost Health Plans Could Affect 1 in 5 Employers in 2022

    News Release

    A new KFF analysis estimates that the Affordable Care Act’s tax on high-cost health plans would affect one in five (21%) employers offering health benefits when it takes effect in 2022 unless employers change their health plans. An even larger share (31%) could be affected when workers’ voluntary contributions to Flexible Spending Accounts are taken into account. The analysis comes as some in Congress are proposing to repeal the ACA’s tax on high-cost health plans,…