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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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  • The California Single-Payer Debate, The Defeat of Proposition 186

    Report

    A report summarizing the campaigns of proponents and opponents to the California Health Security Act (Proposition 186) of 1994. The report includes findings from research commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation on the potential financial and administrative impact of the Act on California, as well as an analysis of the paid media campaigns on the issue (see also #1026, Statewide Surveys of Californians on Public Attitudes Toward the Single Payer Ballot Initiatives (Proposition 186), #1027,…

  • Premiums and Worker Contributions Among Workers Covered by Employer-Sponsored Coverage, 1999-2025

    Interactive

    Since 1999, the Employer Health Benefits Survey has documented trends in employer-sponsored health insurance. Every year, private and non-federal public employers with three or more employees complete the survey. Among other topics, the survey asks firms for the premium (or full per-person cost) of their health coverage, as well as worker contributions (amount of the premium that workers pay). The graphing tool below looks at changes in premiums and worker contributions over time for covered…

  • KFF Health Tracking Poll: Health Care Costs in the Current Moment of Economic Anxiety

    Poll Finding

    As economic anxiety rises, KFF's Health Tracking Poll finds that younger adult, LGBT adults, Hispanic adults, and adults with modest incomes are among groups most likely to report difficulty earning a living and affording health care. Large shares of those who are uninsured or purchase their own insurance also report challenges earning a living and paying for care.

  • Recent Trends in Commercial Health Insurance Market Concentration

    Issue Brief

    Commercial health insurance markets remain highly concentrated across coverage types. However, the individual market, which consists mostly of the ACA Marketplaces, has attracted more insurers and witnessed greater insurer competition across a variety of measures since the implementation of the enhanced premium tax credits in 2021, according to a new Healthy System Tracker analysis.

  • Use of ACA preventive services potentially affected by Braidwood v. Becerra

    Issue Brief

    This analysis finds that about 10 million privately insured people received at least one ACA preventive service or drug that could be affected by a now-stayed U.S. District Court ruling, which found the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) requirement to cover certain preventive services without any cost sharing to be partially unconstitutional.

  • No, Medicaid Isn’t Broken

    From Drew Altman

    With Medicaid about to be a focal point of debate in the Senate, Drew Altman's Axios column looks at why the idea that the program is broken is more urban legend than fact.

  • Snapshots: Insurance Premium Cost-Sharing and Coverage Take-up

    Issue Brief

    One of the many reasons an individual may be uninsured is that she or he decides an employer’s offer of health insurance is too expensive. Several studies have noted the likelihood that a worker will decline an employer’s offer of health insurance increases with the amount he or she is required to contribute. Alternatively, employees may obtain coverage through a spouse, opt for publicly provided coverage if eligible, or decide to do without coverage entirely.…