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

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.

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

701-710 of 1,626 results

  • Toplines: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — April 2009

    Poll Finding

    This document contains the toplines from the April Health Tracking Poll. The survey was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and was conducted April 2 through April 8, 2009, among a nationally representative random sample of 1,203 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews conducted by landline (902) and cell phone (301, including 98 who had no landline telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish. The margin of…

  • The Obama Administration’s 2010 Call Letter for Medicare Advantage and Prescription Drug Plans: Implications for Beneficiaries

    Issue Brief

    On March 30, 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the 2010 “call letter,” which functions as a request for proposals to private health insurers and organizations that want to sponsor Medicare Advantage Plans or Medicare Prescription Drug Plans. This issue brief reviews the call letter — the first issued by the Obama Administration — and examines the implications for beneficiaries of some of the proposed changes, including its emphasis on accountability of health plan sponsors, promoting…

  • Health Care and the Middle Class: More Costs and Less Coverage

    Report

    This analysis paper examines the availability, affordability and stability of the health insurance coverage of the American middle class, defined as those with incomes of $44,000 to $88,000 for a family of four. It also addresses the growing burden of health care costs for the middle class, the adequacy of today's health insurance plans to protect them from large medical bills, and the difference both make as individuals and families make health care decisions for…

  • Pulling it Together: The “Third School” for Controlling Health Care Costs?

    Perspective

    For as long as I have been in the field, there have been two dominant schools of thought about how to control health care costs. One school, The Regulators, believed that the best way to slow increasing costs was to control the total resources going into the health care system: putting limits on the supply of medical professionals, technology and facilities; setting payment rates; or putting enough purchasing power in the hands of government to…

  • The Role of Independent Commissions in Controlling Costs and Enhancing Value: International Lessons

    Event Date:
    Event

    The Alliance for Health Reform and the Commonwealth Fund co-sponsored this briefing to examine the quasi-governmental authorities that Germany, the Netherlands and France have established to control health care costs, oversee quality, and regulate insurance and provider payment. How and why have these quasi-governmental authorities come into being? What is their scope of power, and the mechanism they provide for bringing stakeholders together in health care decision making? What are the respective roles of government…

  • Summary of Coverage Provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

    Issue Brief

    This short summary describes the health coverage provisions contained in the final version of the Affordable Care Act signed into law in March 2010, including the individual mandate requirements, expansion of public programs, health insurance exchanges, changes to private insurance and employer requirements.

  • The Development of Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising Regulation

    Other Post

    This article, which appears in the Food and Drug Law Journal, vol. 57, no. 3, 2002, pp. 423-444 was based on a report written by F.B. Palumbo and C.D. Mullins at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Center on Drugs and Public Policy and funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The article provides an historical overview and current U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation of advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers. The article also…

  • Medicare Cost-Sharing: Implications for Beneficiaries

    Event Date:
    Event

    Tricia Neuman, Vice President and Director of the Medicare Policy Project, testified on behalf of herself and Thomas Rice, Ph.D., of UCLA's School of Public Health, before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health on cost-sharing requirements under Medicare and supplemental Medigap policies. The statement reviews Medicare beneficiaries' current cost-sharing responsibilities, the evidence on the impact of out-of-pocket costs on health-care utilization, and the implications for proposals that would modify Medicare's cost-sharing structure.

  • Retiree Health Benefits Now and in the Future, Report

    Report

    Retiree Health Benefits Now and In the Future - Report This survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates between June and September 2003 provides detailed information on retiree health programs offered by large private-sector employers. The data in this survey reflect the responses of 408 large firms (private-sector employers with 1,000 or more workers) and provides information on eligibility, benefits, premiums, and total cost in 2003, and offers insights as to what…