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The MIDTERMS

Democrats Hold a Nearly 2-to-1 Advantage Over Republicans on Handling the Cost of Health Care

Poll: Cost of Health Care and Gas Top Voters’ Midterm Concerns; Democrats Hold Significant Advantage on Health Care Costs and Cost of Living 

With the 2026 midterms about a month away, health care costs remain tied with gas as voters’ top midterm concerns and the Democrats hold a clear edge over the Republicans Party on who voters trust to handle many top electoral issues, including the cost of health care and the cost of living. Two-thirds of U.S. adults now favor Medicare-for-all, a new high in KFF Polling, but support shifts when competing claims from critics and proponents are heard.

New and noteworthy

Health System Tracker

Is This A Healthcare Economy?

Health care employment has grown faster than other sectors of the economy, with jobs in physician offices, hospitals, outpatient care centers, home health, and other settings increasing over the past year even as the rest of the job market plateaued. 

U.S. Health Spending Is Expected to Reach $9 Trillion by 2034

How Much is Health Spending Expected to Grow?

This chart collection explores how much health spending is expected to grow in the coming years, with a look at growth in prescription drug spending, out-of-pocket spending, and related trends.

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.

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  • Visualizing Health Policy: The Costs and Outcomes of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders in the US

    News Release

    This Visualizing Health Policy infographic looks at costs and outcomes of mental health and substance use disorders in the United States (US). Nearly 18% of adults reported having a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder in 2015, including more than 1 in 5 women. Furthermore, nearly 3% of people aged 12 years or older reported addiction to or misuse of an illicit drug in 2015, including more than 7% of people aged 18 to 25 years.…

  • Pulling it Together: Reflections on This Year’s Four Percent Premium Increase

    From Drew Altman

    Our 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey found a 4% increase in premiums this year, continuing the recent trend of moderation in health costs and spending reported in several studies. Double digit increases in premiums were once a common occurrence, but we have not seen any since a 10% increase in 2004 and 13% growth in 2003. Rates of increase in total health spending have been holding at 4-6% per year recently, and per capita spending…

  • 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…

  • Family Health Premiums Rise 3 Percent to $13,770 in 2010, But Workers’ Share Jumps 14 Percent as Firms Shift Cost Burden

    News Release

    About One In Four Covered Workers Now Face Annual Deductibles Of $1,000 Or More, Including Nearly Half Of Those Employed By Small Businesses WASHINGTON, D.C. --  Workers on average are paying nearly $4,000 this year toward the cost of family health coverage - an increase of 14 percent, or $482, above what they paid last year, according to the benchmark 2010 Employer Health Benefits Survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health…

  • How to Think About Higher Growth in Health-Care Spending

    News Release

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal's Think Tank, Drew Altman explains that just as we should not have expected historically low rates of health spending increases to continue, we should not dramatize a return to higher rates in coming years. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available.  

  • New Analysis Finds Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Spending Decreasing on Average, But More People Spending in Excess of $1,000 a Year

    News Release

    A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that average annual out-of-pocket prescription drug spending for workers and family members decreased from a recent high of $167 in 2009 to $144 in 2014. Most of the decline in out-of-pocket spending occurred between 2009 and 2012 and is likely due to generic substitution for popular drugs that lost patent protection. The decline in out-of-pocket-spending continued from 2012 to 2014 with nearly two-thirds of the decline during this…

  • New Study Provides Insight and Analysis to Help Explain the Medicare Spending Slowdown

    News Release

    Medicare, the federal health program that provides health care and coverage to 54 million seniors and younger adults with permanent disabilities, is in the midst of an unprecedented slowdown in spending growth.  A new issue brief from the Kaiser Family Foundation, How Much of the Medicare Spending Slowdown Can be Explained? Insights and Analysis from 2014, examines the factors that help explain why Medicare is on track to spend an estimated $580 billion in 2014,…

  • What do we know about the burden of disease in the United States?

    Feature

    This slideshow examines disease burden in the United States and comparable countries as measured by Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), which take into account years of life lost due to premature death and years of productive life lost to poor health or disability. Although the U.S. disease burden rate dropped 14 percent between 1990 and 2010. comparable countries saw an average decrease of 18 percent. In the United States, mental health and musculoskeletal disorders are…

  • Average Annual Spending for Selected Health Services, in Billions, 1993-2023

    Feature

    Average Annual Spending for Selected Health Services, in Billions, 1993-2023-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (For 1993 & 2003 data, see Historical; National Health Expenditures by type of service and source of funds, CY 1960-2012; file nhe2012.zip. For 2013 & 2023 data, see Projected; NHE Historical and projections, 1965-2023, file nhe65-23.zip).

  • Projected Annual Increase in National Health Expenditures and Their Share of Gross Domestic Product, 2013-2023

    Feature

    Projected Annual Increase in National Health Expenditures and Their Share of Gross Domestic Product, 2013-2023-HEALTHCOSTS Download Source Kaiser Family Foundation calculations using NHE data from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National Health Statistics Group, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/ (see Projected; NHE Historical and projections, 1965-2023, file nhe65-23.zip).