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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

Americans’ Challenges with Health Care Costs

This data note reviews our recent polling data that finds that many Americans struggle to afford many aspects of health care, including disproportionate shares of uninsured adults, Black and Hispanic adults and those with lower incomes.

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. 

Cumulative percent change in health sector and non-health sector employment, January 1990 - August 2026

What Are the Recent Trends in Health Sector Employment

Health care employment continues to grow even as hiring across other sectors has plateaued. The health sector added nearly 379,000 jobs over the past year, a 2% increase, compared with just 0.2% growth in other non-farm employment, with outpatient care among the fastest-growing health care settings.

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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  • Nonprofit Hospitals’ Tax-Exempt Status Worth About $28 Billion, New KFF Analysis Finds

    News Release

    Editor's Note: The press release was updated on March 27, 2023, to reflect corrections in the underlying analysis, resulting in a modest increase in the total estimated value of tax exemption, from $27.6 to $28.1 billion. The tax-exempt status of the nation’s nonprofit hospitals collectively was worth about $28 billion in 2020, a new KFF analysis of hospital financial data estimates. The total reflects the estimated federal, state and local taxes that nonprofit hospitals do…

  • Poll: Nearly Half of Adults Would Be Interested in Prescription Weight-Loss Drugs, But Enthusiasm Fades Based on Lack of Coverage and Risk of Regaining Weight 

    News Release

    Nearly half (45%) of the public are at least somewhat interested in taking a prescription weight-loss drug, including many who say they only want to lose a little weight, though many people lose interest when presented with potential financial and medical drawbacks, the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll reveals.The poll gauges the public’s interest in using prescription drugs to lose weight as a relatively new class of drugs, initially approved to treat diabetes, is garnering…

  • How Much and Why ACA Marketplace Premiums Are Going Up in 2025

    Issue Brief

    This analysis of insurers' preliminary rate filings shows that ACA Marketplace insurers are requesting a median premium increase of 7% for 2025, similar to the 6% premium increase filed for 2024. Insurers cite growing health care prices – particularly for hospital care – as a key driver of premium growth in 2025.

  • Medicaid and HIV/AIDS Policy: A Basic Primer

    Report

    The Medicaid Primer presents in depth information on Medicaid, the federal/state program that provides health coverage for low-income families and people with disabilities and is the largest source of public financing for HIV/AIDS care in the U.S. The Medicaid Primer is designed to help policymakers and advocates navigate through the complexities of Medicaid with regard to the program's role for people with HIV/AIDS. REPORT Download

  • Pulling it Together: When Premiums Go Up 39%

    Perspective

    Our group that works on health care cost issues just updated an analysis that sheds light on what’s really happening to people in the individual health insurance market, the issue Secretary Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner, and others have put in the spotlight by calling on Anthem and other insurance companies to account for their proposed high premium increases. The analysis shows that people buying health insurance on their own in the individual market…

  • Rate Review: Spotlight on State Efforts to Make Health Insurance More Affordable

    Other Post

    The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates a new federal role to examine “unreasonable increases” in the premiums charged for certain individual and small group health plans. Under the health reform law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will work with state insurance departments to conduct an annual review of unreasonable rate increases, and insurers must provide justification for such increases to HHS and to the public via their websites. The…

  • Congressional Testimony on Expanding Health Care Coverage

    Event Date:
    Event

    On May 5, 2009, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance held a roundtable discussion on health-care coverage issues as part of its health reform efforts. Diane Rowland, the Foundation's Executive Vice President and Executive Director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, and Gary Claxton, Foundation Vice President and Director of the Health Care Marketplace Project, participated in the discussion and prepared written testimony at the committee's request. Testimony of Diane Rowland (.pdf)…