Home Health Costs Topics

Health Costs

New and noteworthy

KFF/AP Survey Probes Rural Voters’ Increasing Anxieties About the Rising Cost of Living, Including Health Costs, Heading into the Midterm Elections

The KFF/AP Rural Voters Survey examines the views and political priorities of voters living in rural areas across the United States ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The survey gauges rural voters’ top election issues, growing struggles with cost of living and health care costs, as well as views on the Trump administration’s health care policies.

Health System Tracker

How TrumpRx Brand-Name Drug Prices Compare

TrumpRx prices for brand-name drugs are about as likely to be higher as lower compared to average prices in other wealthy countries, according to an analysis that compares 32 brand-name drugs.

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.”

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

311-320 of 1,613 results

  • The Massachusetts Health Care Landscape

    Fact Sheet

    This fact sheet summarizes the Massachusetts health care landscape, including data on demographics, population health, the uninsured and the state Medicaid program. Fact Sheet (.pdf)

  • How Five Leading Safety-Net Hospitals Are Preparing For The Challenges and Opportunities of Health Care Reform

    Report

    This study, published in the journal Health Affairs, examines how five leading safety-net hospitals are preparing for major changes expected to result from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including less government support for uncompensated care and the need to compete for newly insured people. The hospitals studied are Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City; Denver Health Medical Center in Colorado; Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas; San Francisco General Hospital in California; and…

  • Copay Adjustment Programs: What Are They and What Do They Mean for Consumers?

    Issue Brief

    Drug makers sometimes offer copay coupons to lower consumers’ out-of-pocket costs for their brand-name prescriptions, though how private health plans treat those coupons can substantially limit their value to consumers. This issue brief provides an overview of such copay adjustment programs, stakeholder arguments for and against their use, their prevalence, and federal and state efforts to address them.

  • Why Do We Hear More About High Drug Prices Than About Hospital Prices?

    Perspective

    In this JAMA Health Forum post, KFF's Larry Levitt outlines four reasons why high drug prices are in the spotlight more than hospital prices, even though hospitals accounted for 40% of the growth in national health spending from 2022 to 2024, and explores the potential for policy action to restrain them.

  • Why Higher Drug Costs Are Consumers’ Biggest Cost Worry

    From Drew Altman

    In this column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses why public concern over drug prices is the “tip of the iceberg” representing broader concerns about out-of-pocket health care costs.

  • Two-Thirds of the Public Say the U.S. Should Play a Major Role in Distributing COVID-19 Vaccines Globally, But Not Most Republicans

    News Release

    With increased attention to the global need for COVID-19 vaccines and the Biden administration’s announcement today about how it plans to distribute the first portion of the 80 million doses it will share by the end of this month, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll finds that two-thirds of the public (66%) say that the U.S. should play at least a “major role” in distributing COVID-19 vaccines to other countries, including about a quarter (27%)…

  • Ten Things to Know About Consolidation in Health Care Provider Markets

    News Release

    Mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals and other health care providers are drawing attention from federal and state regulators, including the Federal Trade Commission, and policymakers amid concerns that such consolidations can reduce competition and contribute to the high costs of health care. A new KFF brief examines and summarizes the evidence about consolidation among health care providers as more community hospitals become part of a larger system, and more physicians are in practices owned by…

  • What Would Another Trump Presidency Mean for Health Care?

    Perspective

    In a new column in JAMA Health Forum, Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy, explores what a second Trump presidency might mean for health policy based on his record and remarks, including potentially weakening the Affordable Care Act, reducing federal Medicaid costs, and restricting access to abortion.

  • The Affordability of Long-Term Care and Support Services: Findings from a KFF Survey

    Poll Finding

    This survey shows that most adults feel unprepared for affording the cost of long-term care and support service, and just under half are not confident they will have the financial resources to pay for care they might need as they age. Most older adults have not taken financial or practical steps to plan for their potential future care needs.