Health Costs

The MIDTERMS

KFF Health Tracking Poll: MAHA and the Midterms

Chemical food additive and pesticide concerns associated with the Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement are shared broadly across the public. But when it comes to voters, health care costs are a higher priority and bigger motivator, even among MAHA supporters, a new KFF Health Tracking Poll finds. When asked to identify their most important health priority for government to address, far more MAHA-supporting voters identify lowering the cost of health care (42%) than other issues more closely associated with the movement.

Affordable care act

ACA Marketplace Survey Feature Image - Website

Cost Concerns and Coverage Changes: A Follow-Up Survey of ACA Marketplace Enrollees

This KFF survey is a follow-up survey of adults who had ACA Marketplace insurance in 2025. The survey examines the cost concerns and coverage changes of Marketplace enrollees following the end of the enhanced premium tax credits and finds that half of returning enrollees say their health care costs are “a lot higher” and most expect to cut back on basic household expenses to afford coverage.

Health System Tracker

What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage? Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, but its reach is uneven.

How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries? The life expectancy gap between the U.S. and peer countries decreased from 4.1 years in 2023 to 3.7 years in 2024 as U.S. mortality dropped.

How Does Cost Affect Access to Health Care? In 2024, about 1 in 6 adults reported delaying or not getting healthcare due to cost, including medical or mental health care.

How Does Health Spending in the U.S. Compare to Other Countries? While the U.S. still spends the most in total dollars, eight OECD nations had a higher percentage increase in per-person health spending in 2024.

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  • Update on COVID-19 Funding for Hospitals and Other Providers

    Policy Watch

    This blog is an overview of the outstanding questions related to the $100 billion for hospitals and other providers in the CARES Act and whether there will be meaningful protections for the uninsured and people with private coverage who could face surprise bills.

  • Interactive Maps Highlight Urban-Rural Differences in Hospital Bed Capacity

    News Release

    As the U.S. coronavirus outbreak spreads beyond densely populated metropolitan areas, a new KFF analysis finds that rural areas typically have fewer intensive care hospital resources than their urban counterparts, and populations at greater risk of developing serious illness and complications from COVID-19. While metro and non-metro areas have similar numbers of hospital beds per capita (23.5 vs 23.8 beds per 10,000 people), non-metro areas have fewer intensive care (ICU) beds – about 1.7 per 10,000 people,…

  • Urban and Rural Differences in Coronavirus Pandemic Preparedness

    Issue Brief

    The coronavirus outbreak has hit densely populated urban areas of the United States first and hardest. Some health systems have experienced surges of patients, raising concerns that there are not enough hospital beds, staffing, and equipment. The novel coronavirus was slower to spread to rural areas in the U.S., but that appears to be changing, with new outbreaks becoming evident in less densely populated parts of the country. A new issue brief looks at urban-rural…

  • What Testing Capacity Do We Need?

    Policy Watch

    This post looks at potential benchmarks for estimating the number of coronavirus tests needed in the United States and compares them to current national, and state level, testing levels.

  • How Health Costs Might Change with COVID-19

    Issue Brief

    As the coronavirus spreads rapidly across the United States, private health insurers and government health programs could potentially be burdened with higher health care costs. However, the extent to which costs grow, and how the burden is distributed across payers, programs, individuals, and geography are still very much unknown. A new issue brief, available in full on the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker, explores some of the factors driving health costs upward and downward, as well…

  • Analysis Estimates Up To 2 Million Uninsured People Could Require COVID-19 Hospitalization

    News Release

    Patients Could Still Be on the Hook for Outpatient Costs, Costs If They Test Negative, and Cost Sharing A new KFF analysis estimates that between 670,000 and 2 million uninsured people around the country eventually could be hospitalized with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Reimbursing hospitals for those treatments could cost between $13.9 billion and $41.8 billion. Trump administration has indicated that it plans to reimburse hospitals for the care of…