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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

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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  • Managed Care Consumer Protections Offered by Medium and Large Employers

    Fact Sheet

    A fact sheet summarizing data from a survey conducted between January and March of 1998 with 1,583 firms with 200 or more workers. The survey, which is conducted annually, focuses on the characteristics of the health benefit plans sponsored by employers.The supplemental questions discussed in this brief were developed jointly by staff from the Kaiser Family Foundation and KPMG and funded by the Foundation. Fact Sheet Fact Sheet

  • Managed Care Consumer Protections Offered by Medium and Large Employers – Fact Sheet

    Fact Sheet

    Managed Care Consumer Protections Offered by Medium and Large Employers November 1998 Background During the past year, Congress and the states considered a number of proposals that would have provided additional protections to consumers in health insurance plans, particularly managed care plans. Among the key issues raised in these debates was how much the protections would increase health insurance premiums, which depends in part on the extent to which these proposed protections are already in…

  • The Public Opinion Update on The Uninsured

    Other Post

    Kaiser Public Opinion Update, April 2000 summarizes key findings from past surveys on the uninsured conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health and a new survey conducted by the Foundation in conjunction with The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The surveys show that the public is concerned about the problem of the uninsured, but that solutions remain elusive because of the lack of public consensus on the best approach and…

  • Managed Competition In California and Small-Group Insurance Market

    Report

    Reprinted from HEALTH AFFAIRS, Volume 16, Number 2 (March/April 1997) This paper describes the early experience of the Health Insurance Plan of California (HIPC), a small-employer purchasing cooperative established in 1993. Report: Managed Competition In California's Small-Group Insurance Market

  • Medicare Consumer-Directed Health Plan: Medicare MSAs and HSA-like Plans in 2007

    Issue Brief

    Medicare Consumer-Directed Health Plan: Medicare MSAs and HSA-like Plans in 2007 This March 2007 issue brief, commissioned by the Kaiser Family Foundation, examines the development of consumer-directed health plans in the Medicare program. Medicare Medical Savings Account plans have high deductibles accompanied by a personal savings account that can be used to pay for medical expenses. The paper examines how such plans operate in Medicare, how they differ from other types of Medicare Advantage plans…

  • National Survey of Small Businesses

    Other Post

    Survey highlights/chartpack from a new survey that finds that two-thirds of small employers say that they are dissatisfied with the cost of health care and health insurance, and about one-third of small businesses that now offer insurance say they are likely to increase the share of costs borne by employees in the next year. Survey Highlights and Chart Pack

  • Federal Policies Affecting The Cost and Availability of New Pharmaceuticals

    Report

    This report by Michael Gluck of the Georgetown University Institute for Health Care Research and Policy examines several ways in which the federal government influences the availability and cost of prescription drugs, including 1) intellectual property protection the laws and policies which regulate and influence patents and generic competition (include the Hatch-Waxman Act), 2) federal support for drug research and development, 3) federal tax subsidies through various tax credits available to pharmaceutical firms, and 4)…

  • Workers and their Health Plans: Free to Choose?

    Other Post

    This article, which appeared in the Jan/Feb 2002 issue of the journal Health Affairs, examines the availability of health plan choice for employees. After reviewing previous research and providing information on the data set employed, the authors, Tom Rice, Jon Gabel, Larry Levitt and Samantha Hawkins, examine changes in the extent of health plans choice over the past decade and the choices available to workers in 2001. Note: This publication is no longer in circulation.…

  • The Role of National Firms in Medicare+Choice

    Report

    This report addresses national managed care firms participation in M+C and the factors influencing their decision processes about M+C products. Based on interviews with executives and senior staff of national managed care firms, this report examines how eight national firms strategically position their M+C product, including the process that firms use when making decisions and the key factors they say most influence their decisions related to participation. Report

  • Pulling it Together: The Health Care Industry’s Second Voluntary Effort

    Perspective

    The announcement that health care industry groups plan to put on the table voluntarily a package of proposals to shave $2 trillion off the rate of increase in health spending over the next ten years immediately conjures up the image of the Voluntary Effort or VE launched with similar fanfare in the Carter administration.  Back then the industry used the VE to fend off Jimmy Carter's efforts to aggressively control the costs of hospital care…