Home Health Costs Topics

Health Costs

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

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.

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

51-60 of 1,617 results

  • Poll: The Cost of Health Care Remains at the Top of the Public’s List of Economic Concerns, Even as Concerns About Gas Prices Climb

    News Release

    Health care costs continue to top the public’s list of economic anxieties, even as fuel prices and economic uncertainty rose following the start of the Iran war, a new KFF Health Tracking poll finds. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. adults are worried about being able to afford health care costs, including three in ten who say they are “very worried.” The same share (64%) are worried about gasoline or other transportation costs, up from about…

  • CMS Extends Medicare’s Short-Term Bridge Program for GLP-1 Obesity Drug Coverage

    Quick Insights

    Extending the short-term GLP-1 Bridge program is good news for eligible Medicare beneficiaries because it provides the certainty of obesity drug coverage at a $50 copay for a longer duration, but federal spending will also rise by some unknown amount since CMS hasn’t disclosed the projected cost.

  • A One-Pager on What’s Wrong with U.S. Health Care

    From Drew Altman

    Asked for a one-pager on what's wrong with the U.S. health system, Dr. Drew Altman, Founding President and CEO, explains the top issues in this piece, published today as his latest column. Altman explains, "We have neither a competitive health care system nor a regulated one—we have a fragmented, micromanaged health system that fails to control costs and makes both patients and health professionals more miserable than they should be..."

  • Are Health Insurance Companies the Reason for Our Health System’s Ills? 

    Perspective

    In this JAMA Health Forum column, KFF's Larry Levitt examines the criticism that health insurance companies are facing from political leaders, and explores the industry's role in both causing and addressing some of the health systems' biggest problems, including rising costs and prior authorization review.

  • What Are the Recent Trends in Employer-Based Health Coverage?

    Issue Brief

    Employer-sponsored health insurance is the largest source of health coverage for people under 65, covering 165.6 million people in March 2025. This analysis examines who among people under 65 have employer coverage and which workers are offered and eligible for coverage at their jobs, using the Annual Economic and Social (March) Supplements of the Current Population Survey.

  • Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance 101

    Feature

    This Health Policy 101 chapter explores employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI), the primary health coverage source for U.S. residents under age 65. In addition to detailing ESI requirements and incentives, structure, availability, and costs, the chapter examines ongoing challenges related to affordability and access to care for those with ESI coverage. 

  • A Preview of the Role Health Care May Play in the 2026 Election

    Issue Brief

    Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, this KFF issue brief examines the role health care has played in previous elections and what that may suggest about its potential role in 2026. KFF polls have consistently found that the cost of health care is an important part of voters’ economic concerns.

  • The New Ideas Conundrum in Health Policy

    From Drew Altman

    In a new column, President and CEO Dr. Drew Altman writes about the "conundrum of health policy ideas" facing Democrats searching for new proposals because of competing, and complex, priorities: rebuilding Medicaid and the ACA after trillion-dollar cuts, reconstructing federal health agencies, and tackling underlying health care costs, when candidates want simple ideas they can campaign on and voters want their costs to come down.

  • How Does U.S. Life Expectancy Compare to Other Countries?

    Issue Brief

    This chart collection examines how life expectancy in the U.S. compares to that of other similarly large and wealthy 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 82.7 years, about 3.7 years longer than in the U.S., reflecting a persistently wide difference in life expectancy between the U.S. and comparable…